r 


LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIK"T    OK" 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
Accessions  No . 5~lp          7  •      Class  No. 


THE  SABBATH. 


THE  SABBATH 

VIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT 
REASON,  REVELATION,  AND  HISTORY, 


WITH 


SKETCHES  OF  ITS  LITERATURE. 


BY  THE  REY.  JAMES  GILFILLAN, 

STIRLING,  SCOTLAND. 


«TE  ABE  TO  ACCOUNT  THE  SANCTIFICATION  OF  ONE  DAY  IN  SEVEN  A  DITTY  WHICt 
GOD'S  IMMUTABLE  I^AW  DOTH  EXACT  FOB  EVEB.— HOOKEB. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 
AMERICAN   TRACT   SOCIETY, 

150   NASSAU-STREET,  NEW  YOKE: 

AND    THE 

NEW  YORK  SABBATH  COMMITTEE, 

5  BIBLE  HOUSE,  ASTOR  PLACE. 


I71E3II1 


V  (  I  U 


SlftSl 

THE  stereotype  plates  of /this  volume  were  gener 
ously  presented  to  the  New  York  Sabbath  Committee, 
by  JOHN  HENDERSON,  Esq.,  of  Glasgow,  Scotland.  In 
issuing  it  without  revision,  neither  that  Committee  nor 
the  Publishing  Committee  assume  the  responsibility 
of  any  sentiment  that  may  have  the  aspect  of  denomi 
national  controversy. 

"The  first  creature  of  God  in  the  works  of  the  days  was  the  light  of  the 
sense,  the  last  was  the  light  of  reason,  and  his  Sabbath  work  ever  since  is 
the  illumination  of  his  Spirit."  LOBD  BACOX. 


PREFACE. 


THE  author  of  the  following  work  accounts  it  his  happiness  to 
have  been  connected  from  his  earliest  days  with  a  class,  of  whom 
the  sacred  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  has  been  a  prominent 
distinction.  That  there  have  been  among  them  no  insincere 
characters,  presenting  a  distorted  image  of  their  creed,  it  would  be 
too  much  to  affirm ;  but  sure  he  is,  that  both  ministers  and 
private  individuals,  with  whom,  from  his  circumstances,  he  has 
been  brought  into  intercourse,  have  been,  for  the  most  part,  up 
right,  holy,  kind-hearted,  cheerful  Christians,  with  whom,  he  had 
reason  to  believe,  it  would  be  good  for  him  to  live  and  die.  Of 
persons  in  sacred  office,  there  rise  to  his  view,  his  relative,  Mr. 
Barlas,  Crieff ;  Dr.  Pringle  and  Mr.  Black,  Perth  ;  Mr.  Jameson, 
Methven ;  Mr.  Beath,  Pitcairn  Green ;  Dr.  Mitchell,  Anderston, 
afterwards  of  Glasgow ;  Dr.  Terrier,  Paisley  ;  Dr.  Jamieson  and 
Professor  Paxton,  Edinburgh  ;  Mr.  Culbertson,  Leith.  Others, 
who  occupied  a  less  public  station,  he  must  not  name ;  but  he 
sees  them  attending  to  the  claims  of  their  fellow- creatures  equally 
as  to  their  own  affairs — visiting  the  poor  and  suffering — sitting 
by  their  bed-sides  with  the  impression  that  a  dying  immortal  is 
near,  and  with  the  tear  and  the  tone  of  sympathy — tending  the 
steps  of  the  aged  and  the  neglected — showing  in  their  countenances 


Yl  PEEFACE. 

the  serenity  and  benevolence  which  they  have  catched  from  the 
face  of  the  Saviour — their  very  steps  indicating  that  they 

"  Walk  thoughtful  on  the  silent,  solemn  shore 
Of  that  vast  ocean  we  must  sail  so  soon." 

His  education  among  such  persons,  with  the  circumstance  that 
his  father  had  published  an  "  Essay "  on  the  subject,  gave  him 
an  early  interest  in  the  Sabbath.  The  work,  which  is  the  result, 
has  for  years  employed  those  moments  which  he  could  spare 
from  the  duties  of  a  laborious  profession.  His  own  collection  of 
books  that  treated  of  the  institution,  though  ultimately  of  some 
extent,  being  insufficient  for  his  purpose,  he  has  had  to  draw  upon 
various  public  libraries.  For  securing  him  access  to  their  trea 
sures,  or  for  otherwise  aiding  his  researches,  he  is  under  great 
obligations  to  Professors  Pillans,  Edinburgh,  and  Fleming,  Glas 
gow  ;  Messrs.  George  Offor,  and  William  H.  Black,  London ;  Mr. 
Haig,  Dublin ;  and  the  Rev.  Alex.  B.  Grosart,  Kinross  :  and  to  the 
librarians,  the  Rev.  A.  L.  Simpson,  Messrs.  Small,  Laing,  Halkett 
(Edinburgh),  Jones  (Glasgow),  and  Christie  (Innerpeffray),  he  is 
indebted  for  manifold  acts  of  attention  and  kindness.1  .He  may 
be  allowed  to  express  special  gratitude  for  the  encouraging  inter 
est  shown,  and  the  various  assistance  rendered,  in  connexion  with 

1  Of  public  libraries,  the  writer  found  those  of  the  British  Museum  and  the  Edin-. 
burgh  University  to  be  the  richest  in  Sabbatic  literature.  In  the  Advocates'  Library, 
and  that  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  he  met  with  works  on  the  subject  which  he  had 
not  discovered  anywhere  else  in  Scotland.  The  library  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  is  peculiarly  valuable  in  the  department  of  Theology,  which  it  owes  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  portion  of  it  that  belonged  to  the  learned  Robertson  of  Kilmarnock, 
and  has  a  select  number  of  volumes  on  the  Sabbath.  The  most  extensive  and  valuable 
•ollection  of  books  and  pamphlets  relative  to  the  institution  that  he  has  had  the  op 
portunity  of  seeing  was  that  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Black,  minister  of  a  Sabbatarian  Church, 
London,  and  an  accomplished  scholar.  He  regretted  that,  with  the  most  liberal  per 
mission  to  make  use  of  it  on  the  spot,  the  rule  of  the  Library,  which  precluded  the 
removal  of  any  book  from  the  premises,  and  his  limited  time,  put  it  out  of  his  power 
to  derive  much  benefit  from  its  stores. 


PREFACE.  Vli 

his  undertaking,  by  the  late  Professor  More,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Somer- 
ville,  John  Henderson,  Esq.  of  Park,  and  his  friends,  the  Rev. 
James  Young,  and  Mr.  John  Taylor,  Edinburgh.  He  would  also 
coidially  acknowledge  the  approbation  which  his  labours  have  met 
with  in  not  a  few  public  journals. 

The  alterations  which  the  work  has  undergone  in  this  second 
edition  have,  it  is  believed,  improved,  without  substantially  chang 
ing  its  character.  This  he  can  affirm  with  some  confidence  as 
far  as  respects  the  General  Index,  prepared  by  the  practised  pen 
of  the  Rev.  James  Anderson,  author  of  the  "  Ladies  of  the  Cove 
nant,"  and  of  other  kindred  and  approved  publications.  With 
these  remarks,  he  again  commits  his  volume,  such  as  it  is,  to  the 
candid  consideration  of  his  readers,  and  to  Him,  who,  he  trusts, 
will  mercifully  accept  and  bless  the  offering. 


STIRLING,  April  17, 186L, 


CONTENTS. 


SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES  AND 
LITERATURE. 

PAOB 

PAGANS  AGAINST  JEWS— BOTH  AGAINST  CHRISTIANS,            .            .  2 

HOLIDAYS,                .......  13 

ENGLAND,                          '•_._•.          •            •            •            •  32 

THE  NETHERLANDS,             »            .            .            •            •            •  90 

ENGLAND,                .           ;           .           .           .           •        •  •  118 

UNITED  STATES,     I-.1--"     f.ir    '-WI  :     .:i7.   "  .£'')    .'•'>"'       .  149 

SCOTLAND,                .                     •  '^.  .,                     ...  157 


PROOFS,  FROM  REASON  AND  EXPERIENCE,  OF  THE  EXCEL 
LENCE  AND  DIVINE   ORIGIN  OF  THE    SABBATH. 

CHAPTER   I. 
PHYSICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS  OP  THE  SABBATH,         .          173 

CHAPTER  II. 
MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SABBATH,          .  .          194 

CHAPTER   ni. 
EOOHOMY  OF  A  WEEKLY  HOLY  DAY,  .  .  ^       .  .          209 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PADS 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SABBATH  ON  THE  RESPECTABILITY  AND  HAPPI 
NESS  OP  INDIVIDUALS,  .  .  .  .  .  .          217 

CHAPTER  V. 
DOMESTIC  BENEFITS  OF  THE  SABBATH,       ( ..  .  .  .          228 

CHAPTER  VI. 
ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH  TO  RATIONS,  .  .  .          242 

CHAPTER  VII. 
APPLICATION  OF  PRECEDING  PRINCIPLES  AND  FACTS  IK  PROOF  OF 

THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SABBATH,  *  .  .          267 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION  TO  .A  SACRED 
PERPETUAL  SABBA  . 


CHAPTER   I. 
DIVINE  INSTITUTION  OF  THE  SABBATH  AT  THE  CREATION,  AND  rrs 

OBSERVANCE  BY  THE  PATRIARCHS,        .  .  .  .          274 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  SABBATH  PROMULGATED  FROM  SINAI  AS  ONE  OF  THE  COMMAND 

MENTS  OF  THE  MORAL  LAW,     .  .  •  •  •          285 

CHAPTER   III. 
THE  SABBATH,  UNDER  A  CHANGE  OF  DAT,  —  A  CHRISTIAN  ORDIN 

ANCE  AND  LAW,  ......          298 

CHAPTER  IV. 
DUTIES  OP  THE  SABBATH,     .  .  .  .  .  .317 


CONTENTS.  „  XI 

CHAPTER  V. 

PAQ« 

DDTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH,  .  .  .  327 

CHAPTER  VI. 
DIVINE  ESTIMATE  OP  THE  IMPORTANCE  OP  THE  SABBATH,   .  .          337 

CHAPTER  VH 

THE  SABBATISM  OF  HEAVEN,  •   .    ...,»  ,     •  •*,•..         •       '*•**>•*      349 


EVIDENCE  FROM  HISTORY  FOR  A  WEEKLY  DAY  OF  REST 
AND  WORSHIP. 

TRACES  OF  SEPTENARY  INSTITUTIONS  AMONG  PAGAN  NATIONS,      •  •  369 
THE  SABBATH  OR  LORD'S  DAY  IN  THE  FIRST  THREE  CENTDBIES  OF 

CHRISTIANITY,  .        '/ v   '    '-**$•       .  .  .  .  368 

THE  SABBATH  IN  CENTURIES  1V.-XV.,        «  .  .  .  381 

THE  SABBATH  AT  THE  REFORMATION,          .  •  .  .  405 

THE  SABBATH  AFTER  THE  REFORMATION,     ....  424 


THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED  AGAINST  OPPOSING  ARGU 
MENTS,  THEORIES,  AND  SCHEMES. 

_     CHAPTER   I. 
ALLEGED  A NTI- SABBATISM  OF  THE  REFORMERS,  •    *  .  .          4o6 

CHAPTER  II. 
MILTON  AND  OTHER  EMINENT  MEN,  .  .  .  .          470 

CHAPTER  III. 
THEORIES  TRIED  BY  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  DIVINE  GOVERKMENT,  479 


Xil  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PAOB 

THEORIES  TRIED  BY  THEIR  TENDENCIES  AND  RESULTS,         .  .          491 

CHAPTER  V. 
THEORIES  AND  ARGUMENTS  TRIED  BY  THE  DOCTRINE  AND  LAW  OF 

REVELATION,    .  .  .  .  .  .  .514 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THEORIES  AND  ARGUMENTS  TRIED  BY  THE  DOCTRINE  AND  LAW  OF 

REVELATION,    .  .  .  .  .          ~  .  .          527 

CHAPTER  m 
THEORIES  TRIED  BY  DIVINE  PREDICTIONS,    .  .  .          546 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  SABBATH  PRACTICALLY  ENFORCED. 

DESECRATION  OF  THE  SABBATH,      .....  556 

SABBATH  DESECRATION  AT  HOME,  .....  558 

SABBATH  DESECRATION  ABROAD,      .....  563 

CAUSES  OF  SABBATH  DESECRATION,  .  .  "         .  «  568 

REMEBIES  FOR  SABBATH  DESECRATION,        ....  580 

PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  OUR  CAUSE,    ....  592 

RELATION  OF  THE  INSTITUTION  TO  THE  PRESENT  INTERESTS  OF  ALL 

CLASSES,          .......  605 

ITS  MORE  MOMENTOUS  CONNEXION  WITH  A  FUTURE  STATE,  608 


INDICES. 

GENERAL  INDEX,     ...  ...          611 

INDEX  OF  TEXTS,     .  ...          334 


[flSITBE 

•&JF0 


SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES 
'  AND  LITERATURE. 


THE  Sabbath  dates,  as  we  believe,  from  the  creation  of  the 
world.  Traces  of  it  have  been  found  among  pagan  nations, 
ancient  and  modern.  It  has  run  parallel  in  Judea  with  the 
greater  part  of  Jewish  history.  It  has  been  identified  for  eigh 
teen  centuries  with  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs  of  Christen 
dom.  The  object  of  ardent  regard,  and  of  intense  dislike,  it  has 
been  the  occasion  of  earnest  controversy  and  of  multiplied  writings. 
Although  it  has  not  received  the  attention,  still  less  the  full  eluci 
dation,  which  its  character,  antiquity,  and  value  might  prepare  us 
to  expect,  it  could  not  fail  long  ere  this  time  to  furnish  materials 
for  a  chapter  in  the  polemics,  and  another  in  the  literature  of 
religion.  And  yet  these  chapters,  so  far  as  we  know,  remain 
unwritten.  A  comprehensive  view,  however,  of  the  manner  in 
which  so  important  a  department  of  knowledge  has  been  culti 
vated,  and  some  account  of  the  labourers,  while  fitted  as  matters 
of  general  intelligence  to  gratify  and  instruct,  seem  to  be  necessary 
for  guiding  further  research,  and  for  shedding  a  direct  light  on 
the  subject  of  inquiry.1  As  there  is  little  hope  that  we  shall  be 
favoured  in  this,  as  in  various  other  branches  of  study,  with  a 
reproduction  of  the  abler  treatises  of  former  days,  might  not  the 
authors  of  the  new  works,  which  new  times  and  circumstances 
demand,  supply  in  some  degree  the  want,  and  enhance  the  value, 

1  After  these  sketches  were  written,  and  several  sheets  printed,  the  author  was  happy 
to  meet  with  the  excellent  De  Histoire  of  Koelman,  and,  after  the  whole  had  passed 
from  the  press,  with  the  annotated  Aphorisms  of  C.  Vitringa,  and  the  Sunday  of  Dr. 
Hesaey.  These  works  supply  in  part  what  he  here  desiderates. 

A 


SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

their  own  volumes,  by  presenting  a  resume  at  least  of  previous 
theories  and  arguments  1 

If  the  following  sketches  should  prove  that  it  is  easier  to  point 
out  than  to  supply  a  desideratum,  it  will  be  to  the  writer  a  satis 
fying  result  of  considerable  labour  expended  on  an  attempt  made 
in  a  somewhat  untrodden  walk  and  with  limited  space,  if  by  any 
impulse  imparted  to  more  successful  exertion,  or  by  the  informa 
tion  brought  together,  a  service  shall  be  rendered  to  the  cause 
which  it  is  the  object  of  this  volume  to  illustrate  and  recommend 
• — the  cause,  he  believes,  of  Divine  law,  and  of  human  happiness. 

During  the  period  comprehended  in  the  sacred  records  of  the 
Old  Testament,  though  Sabbatic  privileges  were  in  repeated  in 
stances  despised,  no  professed  friend  of  the  true  religion  is  found 
to  dispute  the  Divine  appointment  or  sacred  character  of  the 
seventh-day's  services  and  rest.  A  similar  unanimity  prevailed 
for  many  centuries  among  Christians  with  regard  to  the  claims  of 
the  Lord's  day.  But  there  wanted  not  differences  between  the 
Jews  and  the  heathen ;  and  between  the  Christians  and  both. 
And  it  is  necessary  to  pass  these  differences  under  a  brief  review, 
before  we  proceed  to  describe  the  strifes  by  which  the  Church 
itself  came  to  be  agitated. 

PAGANS  AGAINST  JEWS— BOTH  AGAINST  CHKISTTANS. 

While  kindred  observances  are  discovered  in  pagan  countries 
from  the  remotest  times,  it  appears  from  a  few  scattered  notices 
in  history,  that  the  true  Sabbath,  as  observed  by  the  patriarchs 
and  the  Jews,  was  the  object  of  bitter  and  even  violent  hostility 
to  those  heathen  men  who  were  brought  into  intercourse  with  its 
friends.  In  Cain  and  Pharaoh,  we  see  types — the  one,  of  a  class 
who  deliberately  abandon  scenes  and  seasons  of  worship  uncon 
genial  to  their  hearts,  and  so  leave  to  their  descendants  a  legacy 
of  atheism  and  moral  death  ;  the  other,  of  persons  in  power  who 
refuse  to  their  subjects  or  servants  the  periodical  respite  from 
labour  demanded  by  the  necessities  of  body  and  soul.  The  anti- 
Sabbatic  spirit  comes  out  subsequently  in  the  conduct  of  the  Baby 
lonian  "  adversaries  of  Jerusalem,"  who  not  only  "  mocked  at  her 


JEWS  AND  PAGANS.  3 

Sabbaths,"  but  compelled  her  people  to  labour  without  any  rest  ;J 
and  in  the  cruel  edict  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who  proclaimed 
the  keeping  of  their  Sabbath,  and  every  observance  of  their  law 
by  the  Jews,  to  be  a  capital  offence.2  A  similar  feeling  is  betrayed 
in  another  form  by  the  Greek  and  Koman  writers  at  various  times 
— Democritus,  Cicero,  Strabo,  and  Ovid,  Seneca,  Juvenal,  Persius, 
Tacitus,  Plutarch,  and  Appian,  who  ridicule  or  denounce  the  Jew 
ish  religion — some  of  them  singling  out  for  special  derision  or 
reprehension  its  weekly  and  other  holy  days.  Ovid  brands  these 
as  foreign  Sabbaths,  unsuited  for  business,  and  fit  to  be  ranked 
with  seasons  of  noted  calamity  and  gloom  : — 

"  Quaque  die  redeunt  rebus  minus  apta  gerendis 
Culta  Falsestino  septima  festa  Syro."3 

"  Nee  pluvias  vites  :  nee  te  peregrina  morentur 
Sabbata  :  nee  damnis  Allia  nota  suis."  * 

According  to  Augustine,  Seneca,  in  censuring  the  rites  of  Judaism, 
charges  its  Sabbaths  in  particular  with  causing  the  neglect  and 
obstruction  of  urgent  affairs,  and  dooming  to  idleness  and  waste 
the  seventh  part  of  life.5  Juvenal  repeats  the  latter  charge,  when, 
lampooning  Roman  perverts  to  Judaism,  he  says, — 

"  By  them  no  cooling  spring  was  ever  shown, 
Save  to  the  thirsty  circumcised  alone  ! 
Why  ?  but  each  seventh  day  their  bigot  sires 
Rescind  from  all  that  social  life  requires."9 

He  is  followed  by  Tacitus,  who  affirms  that  the  Jews  so  enjoyed 
the  repose  from  labour  which  every  seventh  day  afforded,  as  to  be 
led  by  the  blandishments  of  idleness  to  give  up  every  seventh  year 
also  to  sluggish  inaction.7  Persius  sneers  at  the  voiceless  prayers, 
and  the  Sabbaths  of  the  circumcised  : — 

"  Thou  mutterest  prayers — nor  dost  refuse 
The  fasts  and  Sabbaths  of  the  curtailed  Jews."8 

1  Lam.  i.  7;  v.  5.  2  Jahn's  Jewish  Antiq.,  p.  108, 

«  Art.  Am.  i.  415,  416.  *  Remed.  Am.  219,  220. 

•  De  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  vi.  c.  11.         «  "  Qusesitum  ad  f  »ntem,"  etc.— Juv.  Sat.  xir.  105. 

•  "  Septimo  quoque  die  otium  placuisse,"  etc.— Hist.,  lib.  v.  sec.  5. 

•  "  Labra  moves  tacitus  recutitaque  Sabbata  palles."— Pers.  Sat.  v.  184. 


4  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Whence,  it  may  be  asked,  this  antipathy  to  Jewish  sacred  days  ? 
These  writers  were  familiar  with  seasons  of  rest  and  worship  as 
observed  by  their  own  countrymen  in  a  manner  not  unlike  the 
practice  of  the  Jews.  Plato,  in  a  remarkable  passage,  extols 
festivals  as  the  gift  of  the  gods  for  the  relief  of  toil-doomed  man.1 
Cicero,  though  he  stigmatizes  the  religion  of  the  Jews  as  abhorrent 
from  the  ancestral  ordinances  of  Rome,  commends  festival  days.2 
And  Seneca,  while  he  sees  nothing  but  damage  and  loss  of  time 
in  the  Sabbaths  of  Moses,  applauds  the  holidays  of  heathendom 
as  the  wise  appointments  of  legislators,  for  the  necessary  attemper 
ing  of  human  labour.3  The  reason,  therefore,  of  dislike  to  the 
former  must  be  sought  for  in  prejudice,  not  in  calm  consideration 
and  rational  conviction.  The  sanctity  and  unworldliness  which 
are  repulsive  to  human  depravity  now,  were  equally  obnoxious 
then.  It  is  true  that  some  of  the  heathen,  surmounting  this 
obstacle,  embraced  Judaism,4  and  that  many  of  the  Jews  had 
spread  themselves  over  the  Empire,  and  had  been  admitted  to 
the  privileges  of  citizenship.  To  this  latter  fact  the  words  of 
Horace  apply  : — 

"  '  This  is  the  Jews'  grand  feast ;  and,  I  suspect, 
You  'd  hardly  like  to  spurn  that  holy  sect.' 
1  Nay,  for  such  scrupulous  whims  I  feel  not  any.' 
1  Well,  but  I  do ;  and,  like  the  vulgar  many, 
Am  rather  tender  in  such  points  as  these.'  "  * 

But  the  prevalence  of  the  system  and  its  friends  only  served  to 
exasperate  the  aversion  of  others  into  a  bitterness  of  feeling  not 
at  all  favourable  to  the  discoveries  or  utterances  of  truth.  Under 
this  feeling  Seneca  represents  the  hateful  Jews  as  able  by  their 
numbers  and  power  to  rule  their  masters  ;  and  Juvenal  complains  : 
"  There  be,  who,  bred  in  Sabbath-fearing  lore, 

The  vague  divinity  of  clouds  adore  ; 

Who,  like  their  sires,  their  skin  to  priests  resign, 

And  hate  like  human  flesh  the  flesh  of  swine. 

i  Geoi  5£  olKTflpavres—De  Leg.  lib.  ii.         «  De  Leg.  lib.  il  sec.  19.  Orat  pro.  Flac. 
8  De  Tranq.  Anim.  c.  15. 

*  Josephus  not  only  mentions  Fulvia,  a  woman  of  rank  in  Eome,  as  having  been 
converted  to  the  Jewish  religion,  but  informs  us  that  in  the  reign  of  Nero  all  the 
married  women  in  Damascus  were  addicted  to  that  religion. 

*  "  Hodie  tricesima  Sabbata,"  etc.— Sat .  9  of  B.  1. 


JEWS  AND  PAGANS.  6 

The  laws  of  Rome  those  hlinded  bigots  slight, 
In  superstitious  dread  of  Jewish  rite  ; 
To  Moses  and  his  mystic  volume  true, 
They  set  no  traveller  right,  except  a  Jew."  l 

The  translator,  Badham,  remarking  on  the  ignorance  betted 
by  Juvenal  in  these  lines,  adds  : — "  Had  Providence  permitted  to 
him  the  use  of  that  volume  of  their  (the  Jews')  great  lawgiver, 
how  much  would  he  have  been  astonished  at  the  benevolence  and 
mercy  which  it  inculcates  !  and  how  little  would  he  have  felt  dis 
posed  to  boast  of  the  light  which  the  world  had  received  from 
'  Athens  or  from  Rome.'  "  But  that  volume  in  Greek  was 
accessible  to  Juvenal,  and  both  he  and  Tacitus  had  abundant 
means  of  avoiding  their  ignorant  misrepresentations  of  the  Jewish 
religion.  The  latter  has  in  one  instance  done  it  justice,  and  let 
his  beautiful  words  be  a  reply  to  the  poet's  fancy  of  "  cloud- 
worship,"  though,  as  the  translator  observes,  if  he  gave  them  no 
credit  for  a  more  pure  abstract  notion  of  the  Deity,  a  cloud  was 
as  good  as  a  stone  :  "  The  Jews  acknowledge  one  God  only,  and 
him  they  see  in  the  mind's  eye,  and  him  they  adore  in  contem 
plation,  condemning  as  impious  idolaters  all  who  with  perishable 
materials  wrought  into  the  human  form,  attempt  to  give  a  repre 
sentation  of  the  Deity.  The  God  of  the  Jews  is  the  great  govern 
ing  mind  that  directs  and  guides  the  whole  frame  of  nature,  eter 
nal,  infinite,  and  neither  capable  of  change,  nor  subject  to  decay."  2 

In  defending  their  religion  and  its  institutions,  the  Jews  had 
recouise  to  various  means  according  to  circumstances.  Sometimes, 
as  under  Ahasuerus,  and  in  the  Maccabsean  wars,  they  successfully 
stood  for  their  lives  and  for  their  faith.  It  frequently  happened, 
that  in  consequence  of  their  oppressed  condition,  they  could  vin 
dicate  their  cause  only  by  heroic  suffering  on  its  account.  Of 
this  means  of  defence  we  have  some  noble  instances  in  the  Baby 
lonian  captivity, — (Dan.  ii.  vi.)  We  cannot  accord  the  same 
unmixed  feeling  of  admiration  to  the  conduct  of  those  Jews3  in 
later  times,  who,  to  the  number  of  a  thousand,  allowed  themselves 
to  be  massacred  rather  than  resist  their  assailants  on  the  day  of 
holy  rest,  or  those  twelve  thousand  who  perished,  and  their  priesta 

1  "Quidam  sortiti  metuentem  Sabbata  patrem,"  etc.— Juv.Sat.  xiv.  97. 

»  Hist.  Book  v.  sec.  5.  3  Joseph.  Antiq.  xii.  vi.  2  ;  Wars,  i.  rti  5. 


6  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

whose  blood  was  mingled  with  their  sacrifices,  because,  though 
they  had  come  to  believe  it  right  to  withstand  their  enemies,  they 
still  held  it  unlawful  to  adopt  offensive  measures  on  that  day.  At 
other  times  we  find  them  resorting  to  the  arts  of  diplomacy,  and 
the  aid  of  foreign  power.  They  pleaded  effectually,  for  example, 
with  Agrippa  and  Augustus.  The  latter,  in  answer  to  their 
appeal,  issued,  and  inscribed  on  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  Csesar, 
an  order  in  their  favour,  commanding,  with  other  things,  that 
they  should  not  be  obliged  to  go  before  any  judge  on  the  Sab 
bath-day,  or  on  the  day  of  preparation  for  it,  after  the  ninth 
hour.1 

Nor  was  the  pen  wanting.  After  the  cessation  of  the  prophetic 
spirit  with  Malachi,  the  books  called  the  Apocrypha  were  written, 
it  is  supposed,  by  individuals  of  the  Jewish  people  belonging 
mostly  to  Alexandria.  These  books,  though  nowhere  pretending, 
and,  in  some  instances,  as  they  well  might,  even  disavowing  any 
claim  to  inspiration,  contain,  amidst  flagrant  errors  and  imperfec 
tions,  many  wise  maxims,  with  our  most  authentic  information 
respecting  the  history,  doctrines,  and  practice  of  the  divinely 
selected  nation,  and  of  the  Church,  of  God,  during  the  period  of 
above  four  hundred  years.2  Re-echoing  Scripture  facts  relative 
to  the  Sabbath,  they  describe  the  care,  amounting  to  austerity, 
with  which  in  the  days  of  the  Maccabees  that  holy  institution  was 
observed.  To  two  other  writers,  who  amongst  various  services  to 
Judaism,  stood  forward  in  the  character  of  its  apologists,  we  owe 
answers  to  anti-Sabbatic  calumnies,  as  well  as  warm  eulogiums  on 
the  septenary  rest.  One  of  them  was  the  learned  and  eloquent 
Philo-Judseus  3  The  other  was  the  well-known  Josephus,4  whose 
works,  prized  alike  by  the  intelligent  many,  and  the  learned  few, 
have  shed  much  light,  including  a  few  rays  on  our  subject,  over 

1  Joseph.  Antiq.  xvi.  ii.  3  ;  xvi.  vi.  1,  etc. 

2  Dr.  Pye  Smith'd  First  Lines  of  Christ.  Theol.  p.  472. 

8  Philo  represents  himself  as  advanced  in  life  in  A.D.  40.  His  language  on  certain 
subjects  is  so  strikingly  coincident  with  the  phraseology  of  the  Apostles  John  and 
Paul,  as  to  be  regarded  by  an  able  writer  (Dr.  J.  Jones)  as  a  proof  of  his  conversion  to 
Christ  ianity. 

*  He  was  born  about  A.D.  37,  but  belongs  in  the  character  of  historian  to  the  close  of 
the  first  century.  Sad  it  is,  that  living  when  the  Gospel  had  begun  to  pour  its  efful 
gence  on  the  world,  he  refused  its  illumination.  For,  that  Josephus  was  a  Christian, 
as  the  writer  already  referred  to  has  laboured  to  show,  is  disproved  by  stubborn  facts. 


CHRISTIANS,  JEWS,  AND  PAGANS.  7 

the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  the  history  and  character  of  his  nation. 
Any  defence  of  Judaism,  however,  at  the  time  when  these  able 
men  wrote,  was  encumbered  with  serious  disadvantages.  The 
friends  of  the  system  were  far  from  being  happy  illustrations  of 
its  moral  tendency,  and  the  system  itself  had  fallen  under  the 
description  :  "  In  that  he  saith,  A  new  covenant,  he  hath  made 
the  first  old.  Now  that  which  decayeth  and  waxeth  old  is  ready 
to  vanish  away." — (Heb.  viii.,13.) 

The  Sabbatic  controversy  now  passes  into  two — one  between 
Jews  and  Christians ;  the  other  between  Christians  and  the 
adherents  of  Paganism.  In  each  of  these  new  conflicts,  as 
in  the  old,  one  of  the  parties  is  subjected  for  a  time  to  perse 
cution  for  its  opinions.  A  new  power,  it  is  felt,  has  come  into 
the  field.  Its  wider  and  more  rapid  ascendency  produces  a 
more  determined  resistance  than  had  been  offered  to  the  less 
aggressive  and  energetic  system  which  it  has  succeeded.  Christi 
anity  is  assailed  with  a  proportionate  severity  by  the  heathen. 
The  Jews  also  turn  persecutors,  and,  like  Herod  and  Pilate,  they 
and  the  Pagans,  who  before  were  at  enmity  between  themselves, 
are  made  friends  together.  From  the  days  of  the  apostles  down 
wards  for  many  years,  the  followers  of  Christ  had  no  enemies 
more  fierce  and  unrelenting  than  that  people,  who  cursed  them  in 
the  synagogue,  sent  out  emissaries  into  all  countries  to  calumniate 
their  Master  and  them,  and  were  abettors,  wherever  they  could, 
of  the  martyrdom  of  men,  such  as  Polycarp,  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy.  Among  the  reasons  of  this  deadly  enmity  was 
the  change  of  the  Sabbatic  day.  The  Romans,  though  they  had 
no  objection  on  this  score,  punished  the  Christians  for  the  faith 
ful  observance  of  their  day  of  rest,  one  of  the  testing  questions 
put  to  the  martyrs  being,  Dominicum  servasti? — Have  you  kept 
the  Lord's  day  I1  Such,  however,  was  the  success  of  truth, 
and  of  the  example  of  these  good  men,  that  the  Lord's  day  soon 
passed  from  being  an  object  of  opprobrium  into  a  law  of  a  great 
empire.  And  Julian  himself  was  so  impressed  with  the  power  of  its 
arrangement  of  rest  and  instruction  as  to  contemplate  the  adop 
tion  of  a  similar  provision  for  reviving  and  propagating  heathen 
error. 

i  Baron.  An.  Eccles.  A.D.  303.  Num.  35,  etc. 


8  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

But  the  opposition  of  the  Jews  and  Pagans  to  Christianity  was 
conducted  in  the  form  also  of  assault  against  its  principles  and 
institutions  by  argument  and  ridicule.  Celsus  and  Porphyry 
proved,  if  not  abler,  yet  more  zealous  and  subtle  combatants 
against  Jesus,  than  Seneca  and  Tacitus  had  been  against  Moses. 
Trypho  may  be  considered  as  expressing  the  grounds  of  Jewish 
antagonism  to  the  Christian  faith.  Its  friends  had,  therefore,  in 
addition  to  the  work  of  propagating  truth,  to  defend  it  against 
this  twofold  opposition.  The  defence  was  undertaken  by  the  emi 
nent  men  who  are  so  well  known  under  the  name  of  the  Fathers, 
and  occupies  not  the  least  valuable  portion  of  their  works. 

The  Sabbatic  views  of  the  Fathers  will  fall  to  be  presented  in 
another  part  of  this  volume.  Let  it  be  sufficient  in  this  place  to 
say,  that  by  one  or  more  of  them,  un contradicted  by  the  others, 
has  each  of  the  doctrines  been  held,  which  in  our  days  have, 
though  improperly,  been  termed  Sabbatarian — the  primaeval 
appointment  and  patriarchal  observance  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest 
and  worship — the  substitution  by  Divinb  authority  of  the  first 
day  of  the  week  as  the  Christian  Sabbath  for  the  Jewish  seventh 
day — and  the  consecration  by  the  same  authority  of  the  former, 
or  Lord's  clay,  entirely  to  rest  from  secular  labour,  and  to  the 
immediate  service  of  God,  as  required  and  directed  in  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  cases  of  necessity  and  mercy  being,  as  they  were, 
also,  under  the  former  economy,  excepted. 

The  Fathers  had  on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbath,  as  on  others, 
to  engage  in  dialectic  conflicts  with  the  Jews.  Besides  frequent 
passages  which  touch  on  Judaism,  we  find  some  of  them  devoting 
entire  treatises — others,  large  portions  of  works,  to  the  subject. l 
The  Sabbatic  institution  in  particular  is  treated  of  by  Novatian, 
and  in  a  work  ascribed  to  Athanasius,  and  is  referred  to  in  vari 
ous  patristic  writings,  with  special  respect  to  Jewish  opinions.  In 
Justin  Martyr's  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  a  Jew — whether  a  real 
or  fictitious  person,  is  not  certain — the  Christian  and  Jewish 
arguments  on,  besides  other  points,  the  continued  observance  of 
the  seventh  day  as  a  holy  clay,  are  presented.  Trypho  charges 
Justin  and  other  Christians,  as  affecting  superior  excellence,  and 

1  As  Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Tertullian,  Hippolytus,  Cyprian,  Euse- 
fcius,  Basil,  Chrysostom,  and  Augustine. 


CHRISTIANS,  JEWS,  AND  PAGANS.  9 

yet  not  at  all  differing  from  the  Gentiles,  inasmuch  as  they  ob 
served  neither  the  feasts  nor  the  Sabbaths.  To  this  Justin  replies, 
that  as  circumcision  was  not  necessary  before  Abraham,  nor 
the  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  and  festivals  and  oblations  before 
Moses,  neither  now  is  there  any  need  of  these  observances  after 
Christ  has  come.1  Irenseus  and  Tertullian  reason  in  the  same 
way.  "  Abraham,"  says  the  former, '  "  believed  God  without 
circumcision  and  the  Sabbath."2  "Let  them  show  me,"  says 
the  latter,  "that  Adam  sabbatized,  or  that  Abel  in  presenting 
his  holy  offering  to  God  pleased  him  by  sabbatic  observance,  or 
that  Enoch  who  was  translated,  was  an  observer  of  the  Sabbath, 
or  that  Noah,  the  builder  of  the  Ark  on  account  of  the  great 
deluge,  kept  the  Sabbath,  or  that  Abraham  amidst  Sabbath-keep 
ing  offered  his  son  Isaac,  or  that  Melchisedec  in  his  priesthood  re 
ceived  the  law  of  the  Sabbath."3 

The  word  Sabbath,  as  will  afterwards  more  fully  appear,  must  be 
understood  in  these  passages  to  signify  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  The 
connexion  of  the  word  with  "  festivals  and  oblations"  in  the  argu 
ment  of  Justin  Martyr,  shows  that  this  was  the  sense  in  which  he 
used  the  term.  That  Tertullian  employed  it  in  the  sam^  accepta 
tion  follows  from  the  drift  of  his  reasoning,  and  from  his  usual  mode 
of  writing  ;  as  for  example,  "  We  celebrate  the  day  after  Satur 
day  in  distinction  from  those  who  call  this  day  their  Sabbath, 
and  who  devote  it  to  ease  and  eating,  departing  from  the  old 
custom,  of  which  they  are  now  very  ignorant  ;"4  and  "  All  anxiety 
is  to  be  abstained  from,  and  business  postponed  on  the  Lord's 
Day."5  Neither  Justin  nor  Tertullian  can  intend  to  question  the 
need  or  the  obligation  of  a  weekly  holy  day  under  Christianity, 
for  they  have  both  not  only  detailed  the  manner  in  which  "  Sun 
day"  was  observed  by  the  Christians  in  their  times,  but  posi 
tively  affirmed  the  Divine  authority  of  the  day.  Irenseus,  too, 
mentions  the  Sabbath  along  with  circumcision,  thus  making  it 
manifest  that  he  refers  to  Mosaic  ordinances,  and  has  plainly  stated 
his  conviction  that  the  Decalogue  is  of  perpetual  obligation,  as 
well  as  that  the  Lord's  Day  is  supreme  among  the  days  of  the 
week,  being  the  only  season  on  which  it  was  right  to  celebrate 

i  C.  12.  a  Adv.  Hceres,  lib.  iv.  c.  30.  8  Adv.  Judceos,  sec.  4. 

*  Apol.  c.  16.  De  Oral.  c.  23. 


10  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  resurrection  of  Christ. 1  "  The  Fathers,"  observes  Bishop 
Patrick  on  Gen.  ii.  3,  "  in  saying  that  there  was  no  Sabbath 
among  the  patriarchs,  meant  Jewish  Sabbaths. "  How  would  Justin 
Martyr  and  Tertullian  have  indignantly  spurned  the  interpretation 
put  on  their  words  by  a  recent  writer,  when,  to  accomplish  the  un 
godly  and  unphilanthropic  purpose  of  overthrowing'  a  Divine  insti 
tution,  he  neglects  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  words  employed  by 
ancient  writers,  or  of  their  views  elsewhere  expressed,  and  charges 
them  with  saying  what  warranted  the  inference  that,  "  except 
during  the  time  of  divine  service,  the  Christians  of  that  period 
lawfully  might,  and  actually  did,  follow  their  worldly  pursuits  on 
the  Sunday!"2 

There  is  a  phase  of  the  controversy  which  has  led  to  the  mis 
taken  notion  that  the  Christian  Church  itself  was  for  a  consider 
able  time  divided  on  the  subject  of  a  weekly  holy  day.  There 
were  even  in  the  days  of  the  apostles  persons  who  wished  to  im 
pose  upon  converts  from  heathenism  the  obligation  of  observing 
the  times  of  the  Jewish  calendar,  along  with  the  other  parts  of 
the  ancient  ritual,  an  obligation  from  which  the  Apostle  of  the 
un circumcision  declared  them  to  be  free  (Col.  ii.  16,  17),  and 
which  was  not  to  be  required  on  the  one  hand  (Acts  xv.  19),  or 
to  be  yielded  to  on  the  other  (xxi.  25).  Yet  a  party,  the  Ebi- 
onites,  who  professed  to  be  Christians,  though  they  denied  the 
Divinity  of  the  Saviour,  not  only  held  and  acted  on  the  necessity  of 
keeping  the  whole  law  of  Moses,  but  insisted  that  all  others  should 
do  the  same.  This  party  continued  to  exist  for  four  or  five  centuries. 
But  although,  as  Eusebius  informs  us,  they  celebrated  the  Sun 
days  in  remembrance  of  the  resurrection  of  our  Saviour,  yet,  as 
they  observed  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and  other  ceremonies  like  the 
Jews,3  as  they  made  this  observance  an  indispensable  part  of 
religion,  and  as  they  disbelieved  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  Deity, 
they  had  no  claim  to  be  considered  Christians.  They  were  ac 
cordingly  ranked  among  heretics,  and  some  of  the  Fathers  wrote 
against  them  as  such.  Epiphanius  devotes  a  part  of  his  Pan- 
arim  to  the  Ebionites,  in  which,  while  he  holds  that  the  first 

1  Adv.  Hceres,  iv.  31.     Euseb.  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  v.  c.  24. 

2  Examin.  of  the  Six  Tex-ts,  by  a  Layman,  p.  274 
*  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  27. 


CHRISTIANS,  JEWS,  AND  PAGANS.  11 

Sabbath  has  revolved  in  its  septenary  cycle  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world,  he  also  contends  that  •  the  Jewish  day  had  been  dis 
charged. 

Besides  the  Ebionites,  there  was  a  class,  who  were  sometimes 
confounded  with  them,  but  who,  for  a  long  period  at  least,  re 
mained  distinct,  the  Nazarenes.  These  believed  in  the  Divinity 
of  our  Lord,  but  clung  to  the  Jewish  ritual,  which,  however,  they 
sought  not  to  impose  upon  others.  Although  to  some  extent 
sympathized  with  by  the  Church,  they  were  not  considered  as  be 
longing  to  it.  Justin  Martyr  remarks,  that  it  was  a  question  in 
his  time  whether  a  Christian  who  observed  the  Sabbath,  that  is 
Saturday,  should  be  admitted  or  not  to  the  holy  mysteries.1 
Against  such  Sabbatarianism,  not  only  he,  but  Clement  and 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  Tertullian,  Victorine,  Novatian,  and 
others,  testified.  Notwithstanding  these  efforts,  respect  for  Satur 
day  gained  ground.  This  feeling  was  especially  cherished  in  the 
Eastern  Churches,  in  which,  from  deference  to  the  Jews,  who 
were  numerous  in  the  East,  they  distinguished  the  day  by  two 
of  the  supposed  prerogatives  of  the  Lord's  Day,  the  standing 
posture  in  prayer,  and  the  exclusion  of  fasts.  Tertullian  in 
forms  us  that  a  very  few  persons  in  his  time  began  to  introduce 
the  former  practice  in  the  West.  The  historians,  Socrates  and 
Sozomen,  attest  the  general  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  on 
both  the  seventh  and  first  days  of  the  week,  the  former  except 
ing  the  Churches  of  Alexandria  and  Home — a  very  large  excep 
tion — who  followed  an  old  tradition.2  And  Bingham  states, 
that  towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  the  observance  of 
Saturday,  like  Sunday,  prevailed  generally  throughout  the  East, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world.3  But  the  former 
day  was  in  no  period  of  the  Church's  history  placed  on  a  level 
with  the  latter.  In  earlier  times,  a  religious  regard  to  the 
seventh  day  was '  paid  by  few,  and  disapproved  by  Christians  in 
general.  It  was  by  many  never  recognised  as  an  appropriate 
season  for  the  celebration  of  the  communion,  and,  as  Bingham 
says,  "  there  were  no  ecclesiastical  laws  obliging  men  to  pray 

1  Dial,  cum  Trypho,  p.  266. 

*  Socr.  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  22,  and  lib.  v.  c.  8.     Soz.  Hist.  lib.  vii.  c.  18. 

•  Antiq.  Book  xx.  c.  3,  sec.  1. 


12  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

standing  on  the  Sabbath  ;  nor,  secondly,  are  there  any  imperial 
laws  forbidding  lawsuits  and  pleadings  on  this  day  ;  nor,  thirdly, 
any  laws  prohibiting  the  public  shows  and  games,  as  on  the 
Lord's  Day  ;  nor,  fourthly,  any  laws  obliging  men  to  abstain 
wholly  from  bodily  labour." 1  The  views  and  practice  of 
Christians,  as  respected  the  Saturday,  therefore,  did'  not  amount 
to  a  want  of  unanimity  in  reference  to  the  exclusive  claim  of 
the  Lord's  Day  to  Divine  authority,  and  peculiar  sacredness. 
The  facts  bear  out  the  statement  of  Archbishop  Ussher,  that 
"  where  Saturday  was  kept  holy  day,  it  was  not  as  a  Sabbath, 
but  as  a  preparation-day  for  the  Christian  Sabbath." 

The  literary  conflicts  of  the  Christians  and  Pagans,  in  reference 
to  the  Lord's  Day,  afford  few  materials  of  remark.  In  the  first 
instance  the  persecutions  of  the  Church,  and  then  her  ascendency 
in  the  Roman  Empire,  went  to  preclude,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
strife  of  words.  It  appears  that  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century,  Pagan  poetry  shot  some  envenomed  shafts  at  the 
Christians  on  account  of  their  weekly  holy  day,  though  under 
the  pretence  of  aiming  them  at  the  so-called  and  less-dreaded 
Jews.2  At  an  earlier  period,  the  heathen  assailed  the  Christian 
ritual  as  contemptibly  mean,  and  the  Christian  Sabbath  as  a  sea 
son  devoted  to  concealed  impurity  and  crime.  The  charges  of 
immorality,  as  practised  on  the  Lord's  Day  by  its  friends,  were 
triumphantly  disproved.  Justin  Martyr  and  Tertullian  present 
unvarnished  accounts  of  the  harmless  and  holy  manner  in  which 
the  Christians  passed  the  day.  The  latter,  and  Minucius  Felix, 
turn  the  weapons  of  their  enemies  against  themselves,  for  which 
the  flagrant  and  shameless  profligacy  of  paganism  furnished  ample 
occasion.  The  groundless  allegation  of  Celsus,  that  the  religion 
of  Jesus  was  without  a  proper  worship,  because  it  had  no  altars, 
images,  or  temples,  was  met  and  disposed  of  by  overpowering 
arguments  in  one  of  the  ablest  works  of  Origen,  but  for  whose 

1  Antiq.  Book  xx.  c.  3.  sec.  3. 

8  Thus  wrote  Rutilius  Numitianus,— 

Radix  stultitioe  cui  frigida  Sabbata  cord! : 
Bed  cor  frigid  ius  religioiie  sua  est. 
Septima  quaeque  dies  turpi  damnata  veterno 
Tanquam  lassati  mollis  imago  Dei. 


CHRISTIANS,  JEWS,  AND  PAGANS.  13 

immortal  pages  the  allegation  itself  must  have  been  long  ago  for 
gotten. 

Although  no  important  discussion  between  Christians  and  un 
believers  on  the  subject  appears  to  have  arisen  in  the  period  from 
the  seventh  century  down  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  and 
Sabbatic  memorials  were  transferred  for  the  most  part  to  the 
canons  of  councils  and  the  edicts  of  princes,  to  the  abridgment  of 
the  literature  of  the  question,  yet  the  institution  still  employed 
the  pens  of  the  learned,  and  their  testimony  was  of  no  little 
consequence  to  its  preservation,  as  well  as  to  the  permanent  evi 
dence  on  its  behalf.  Many  councils  and  synods  directed  their 
attention  to  the  institution,  and  issued  injunctions  for  its  ob 
servance.  It  was  the  subject  of  frequent  and  uniformly  fa 
vourable  legislation  by  the  civil  powers.  The  dignitaries  of  the 
Church,  particularly  in  England,  exerted  their  commanding 
authority  in  their1  respective  dioceses  on  its  behalf.  Even 
among  the  Popes,  a  few,  awed  by  its  sanctity,  took  its  part. 
Such  means,  mixed  up  though  they  were  in  many  instances 
with  superstitious,  and  other  impure  ingredients,  were  the  tri 
butes  of  human  reason  and  conscience  to  the  sacred  claims  of 
the  weekly  rest,  and  helped  to  secure  its  preservation,  with  some 
measure  of  its  hallowing  and  humanizing  influence,  during  fifteen 
centuries.  But  a  peculiar  honour  and  interest  attach  to  the 
men  of  those  times,  whether  in  higher  or  lower  station,  who 
breathed  and  shed  around  them  the  benignant  spirit  of  the 
Divine  institute,  and  to  whom  it  owed,  as  to  persons  of  the  same 
character  it  will  ever  owe,  its  most  congenial  testimony,  and  best 
defence. 

But,  though  the  harmony  of  Christians  on  points  directly 
affecting  the  authority  and  sacredness  of  the  Lord's  Day  continued 
unbroken  for  upwards  of  fifteen  centuries,  and  the  Reformation 
itself,  which  stirred  so  many  questions,  led  to  no  immediate  con 
test  on  this,  yet  on  a  practice  allied  to  the  weekly  day  of  rest, 
and  tending  to  its  wrong  and  injury,  Rome  and  the  Reformers 
were  speedily  at  Issue. 

HOLIDAYS. 

From  an  early  time  piety  and  zeal,  by  adding  to  the  institu- 
2 


14  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

tions  of  Heaven,  began,  unwittingly,  to  prepare  the  way  for  further 
errors  and  future  strife.  In  these  feelings  originated  the  appoint 
ment  of  stated  days  for  the  commemoration  of  particular  event* 
in  the  history  of  the  Saviour.  The  same  feelings  produced  an 
other  class  of  sacred  seasons.  The  day  of  martyrdom  was  regarded 
as  "  the  day  of  birth  to  a  happy  life  for  ever,"  and,  therefore, 
worthy  of  grateful  celebration.  Such  days  were  called  Natalitia. 
To  ceremonies  without  Divine  rule  there  was  no  limit.  The  saints 
entitled  to  the  honour  of  commemoration  amounted,  in  the  course 
of  some  centuries,  to  a  multitude  for  each  day  of  the  year,1  and  the 
annual  holidays  of  man  became  more  numerous  than  the  Sabbath- 
days  of  God.  Self-righteousness  soon  converted  the  invention  and 
observance  of  new  ceremonies  into  the  price  of  salvation.  Ambi 
tion  saw  in  these  things  the  means  of  promoting  its  objects  ;  and 
the  more  surely  to  compass  them,  gradually  withdrew  the  light  of 
knowledge,  while  it  ministered  fresh  fuel  to  the  flame  of  supersti 
tion  and  fanaticism.  Rome,  holding  in  words  the  supremacy  of 
the  Lord's  Day,  indirectly  impaired  its  authority  and  influence  by 
ranking  it  with  her  own  holidays,  and  by  imposing  on  her  votaries 
both  classes  of  institutions  under  the  same  temporal  penalties,  and 
as  alike  necessary  to  salvation.  The  authority  of  the  Church  was 
sufficient  to  turn  the  scale  in  favour  of  those  Sabbath-days  on 
which  the  anniversaries  of  her  own  appointment  fell,  and  in  pro 
cess  of  time  human  holidays  were  practically  preferred  to  the  day 
which  Christ  had  consecrated  for  His  worship.  So  multitudinous 
had  sacred  days  and  their  assigned  engagements  become,  that  not 
only  was  a  large  amount  of  productive  labour  lost  to  society,  but 
intellectual  power  was  uselessly  expended  in  framing  and  inter 
preting  the  rules  of  a  prodigious  system  of  fooleries,  and  con 
science  was  perplexed  as  well  as  the  spirit  borne  down  by  the 
endless  "  commandments  of  men."  "All  Christianity,"  says  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg,  "  was  placed  in  the  observation  of  cer 
tain  festivals,  rites,  fasts,  and  forms  of  apparel."  -  "  Daily,  new 
ceremonies,  new  orders,  new  holidays,  new  fasts,  were  appointed  ; 

1  "  Except  the  first  day  of  January,  when  the  Gentiles  had  been  so  intent  upon  their 
own  riots  as  to  have  no  leisure  for  martyring  the  Christians."— Durand.  Ration.  Off. 
lib.  vii.  fol.  242.  Durandus,  alleging  Eusebius  as  his  authority,  gives  the  number  of 
martyrs  at  5000  a  day.  The  Editor  of  Cosin's  Works  (v.  23,  notes)  alleges  another 
authority  than  Eusebius,  and  reduces  the  number  to  500  J 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  15 

and  the  teachers  iii  the  churches  did  exact  these  works  at  the 
people's  hands  as  a  service  necessary  to  deserve  justification,  and 
they  did  greatly  terrify  their  consciences  if  aught  were  omitted." 
"  The  doctrine  of  the  gospel,"  it  is  further  observed,  "  is  hereby 
obscured,  which  teacheth  that  sins,  are  forgiven  freely  by  Christ — 
this  benefit  of  Christ  is  transferred  unto  the  work  of  man."1  And 
thus,  also,  was  the  law  of  morality  made  void  as  well  as  the  law 
of  faith.  Oppression  tends  to  madness  and  anarchy ;  the  over 
tasked  will  seek  relief  in  licentious  liberty  ;  holidays  were  turned 
into  seasons  for  vice  and  riot  \  and,  unprofitable  for  religious  ends, 
they  became  auxiliaries  of  impiety  and  demoralization. 

The  growing  evil  met,  for  many  centuries,  with  little  resistance. 
The  later  Fathers  were  strangely  betrayed  into  the  encouragement 
of  the  system,  notwithstanding  its  attendant  mischiefs  which  they 
observed  and  deplored.  Not  only  were  particular  feast-days  made 
by  them  the  subjects  of  homilies  and  extravagant  encomiums,  but 
Basil2  and  Chrysostom3  congratulated  their  hearers  on  having  the 
martyrs  as  the  safeguards  of  their  country  and  cities  against  all 
enemies.  Yet  there  were  individuals  who  were  not  entirely  car 
ried  away  by  the  prevailing  delusion.  ^Erius,  presbyter  of  Sabacte 
in  Armenia,  of  the  fourth  century,  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  these, 
in  so  far  as  he  contended  strenuously  against  stated  days  for  fast 
ing,  and  the  perpetuation  under  Christianity  of  Jewish  feast-days. 
Of  this  individual,  who  also  advocated  the  equality  of  bishops  and 
presbyters,  an  interesting  account  is  given  by  Neander.*  While 
Augustine  was  engaged  in  seeking  support  for  the  existing  holidays 
in  the  authority  of  the  apostles  and  councils,  and  Chrysostom,  in 
lauding  the  pre-eminent  virtues  of  Easter,  the  historian  Socrates 
was  preparing  to  strike  a  heavy  blow  at  their  doctrine  in  the 
avowal  that  neither  the  Saviour  nor  the  apostles  enjoined  by  any 
law  the  observance  of  that  leading  feast,  which  had  crept  in  and 
was  kept  not  from  canon  but  from  custom ;  and  in  censuring 
those  who  contended  for  holidays  as  for  life  itself,  while  they 
regarded  licentiousness  as  a  matter  of  indifference,  thus  despising 
the  commands  of  God,  and  making  canons  of  their  own.6  About 

1  Hall's  Harmony  of  Confessions  (1842),  391,  397. 

2  Orat.  on  the  Forty  Martyrs.  8  Horn.  70,  to  the  people  of  Antioch. 
«  G*»,  Hi$t.  iii.  461,  462.                               »  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  21,  22. 


16  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  same  time  Vigilantius,  a  presbyter  of  Barcelona,  denounced, 
along  with  other  corruptions,  the  abuses  connected  with  vigils  and 
festivals.  His  treatise  on  the  subject  was  assailed  with  much 
asperity  by  Jerome.1  After  an  interval  of  four  centuries,  Claudius, 
bishop  of  Turin  (fl.  817),  appea/s  on  the  arena  as  a  combatant  of 
dominant  evils.  "  In  the  abolition  of  all  saints'  days,  as  in  other 
things" — opposition  to  the  worship  of  images,  and  the  veneration 
of  relics  and  crosses — "  he  preceded  the  Calvinists."2  He  was  fol 
lowed  by  the  Waldenses,  of  whom  Reinerus  Sacco,  an  apostate 
from  themselves,  and  a  Jacobin  inquisitor,  thus  wrote  about  A.D. 
1254 — "They  hold  that  all  customs  of  the  Church,  except  those 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  gospel,  are  to  be  contemned  ;  for 
example,  the  feast  of  light,  and  of  palms,  and  the  feast  of  Pasch, 
of  Christ,  and  of  the  saints.  They  work  on  feast-days  :  they 
disregard  the  fasts  of  the  Church,  dedications,  and  the  benedic 
tions."  3  Another  writer  informs  us,  that  they  rejected  not  only 
holidays  in  memory  of  saints,  but  all  others  whatsoever,  as  having 
been  introduced  without  proper  warrant,  and  kept  no  day  holy 
except  the  Lord's  Day.4  It  appears  that  in  his  views  on  this,  as 
on  other  subjects,  Wycliffe  anticipated  the  reformers,  and  that 
there  were  many  in  his  time  who  held  the  same  opinions.  He 
says,  that  "  many  were  inclined  to  be  of  opinion,  that  all  saints' 
days  ought  to  be  abolished  in  order  to  celebrate  none  but  the 
festival  of  Jesus  Christ,  because  then  the  memory  of  Jesus  Christ 
would  always  be  recent,  and  the  devotion  of  the  people  would  not 
be  parcelled  out  between  Jesus  Christ  and  his  members."  5  So 
intolerable  was  the  evil'  of  multiplied  holidays  felt  to  be  by 
thoughtful  men  in  the  following  century  as  to  produce  a  loud  call 
for  redress.  The  cardinal  of  Canibray  brought  the  matter  before 
the  Council  of  Constance  (A.D.  1414).6  He  also  pleaded  for  the 
rectification  of  this  and  of  some  other  disorders,  in  his  Treatise  on 
Reformation,  holding,  "  that  excepting  Sundays  and  the  great 
festivals  instituted  by  the  Church,  people  ought  to  be  allowed  to 
work  on  holidays  after  Divine  service,  as  well  on  account  of  the 

'  Bruce,  Annus  Sccularis,  p.  199.    Neander's  Gen.  Hist.,  iii.  456. 

*  Gretsmis,  in  Allan  Damascenum,  p.  490.  8  Blair's  Hist,  of  the  Wald.  i  408. 

*  Leger,  Hist.  G4n.  des  Eglis.  Vaudois,  i.  123.  «  Brace's  A  t.  Sec.  p.  20. 
«  Hcylyn's  Hist,  of  the  Sab.  part  2,  p.  16&. 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  17 

debaucheries  and  enormities  in  which  the  generality  of  people  in 
dulge  themselves  on  these  days,  as  out  of  regard  to  labouring  men 
who  have  need  of  all  the  time  they  breathe  in  to  get  their  liveli 
hood."1  The  subject  called  forth  the  eloquent  and  impassioned 
expostulations  of  Nicholas  de  Clemangis,  who  describes  holidays 
as  seasons  distinguished  alike  by  the  abominable  obscenities  of 
Bacchus  and  Venus,  and  by  the  bloody  rites  of  Mars  and  Bellona, 
— inquires  what  noble  or  great  man  would  not  revolt  at  the  cele 
bration  of  His  birthday  with  such  villanies, — and  whether  any 
handiwork  on  the  solemnities  of  the  saints  would  not  be  infinitely 
preferable  to  so  horrible  practices, — and  observes,  "  If  a  man 
oppressed'  with  penury,  be  found  to  have  laboured  in  his  field  or 
vineyard,  he  is  cited  and  severely  punished,  but  he  who  is  guilty  of 
these  worse  things  shall  want  both  punishment  and  an  accuser."2 
The  council  did  adopt  some  measures  of  reformation.  The  Popes, 
however,  disregarded  all  complaints,  and  not  only  retained  the 
days  already  established,  but  added  others  daily  as  they  saw 
occasion.3 

If  the  reformers  had  been  able  to  accomplish  it,  the  evil  would 
have  been  swept  away.  Luther  repeatedly  declared  his  disap 
proval  of  holidays,  and  his  desire  that  they  were  abolished.4  "  I 
would  to  God,"  says  Bucer,  "  that  every  holy  day  whatsoever, 
beside  the  Lord's  Day,  were  abolished.  That  zeal,  which  brought 
them  first  in,  was  without  all  warrant  or  example  of  the  Scripture, 
and  only  followed  natural  reason,  driving  out  the  holy  days  of  the 
Pagans,  as  one  nail  is  driven  out  with  another.  These  holy  days 
have  been  defiled  with  so  gross  superstition,  that  I  marvel  if  there 
be  any  Christian  who  does  not  shake  at  their  very  names/'  5 
Farel  and  Viret  achieved  their  removal  from  Geneva.  On  coming 
to  reside  there,  Calvin  acquiesced  in  the  received  custom.  His 
refusal,  and  that  of  his  colleagues,  Farel  and  Couralt,  to  approve 
of  the  restoration-  of  the  former  practice  at  the  dictation  of  the 

1  Bruce's  An.  Sec.  p.  162.     Gerson,  in  a  sermon  before  the  Council  on  the  Nativity 
of  the  Virgin,  expressed  similar  sentiments,  but  in  the  same  breath  proposed  that  a 
new  festival  should  be  instituted  in  honour  of  Joseph's  virginity. 

2  Tractat.  de  Nov.  Celebrit.  non  instit.          3  Heylyn's  Hist,  of  the  Sab.  part  2,  p.  168. 
*  Consultum  esse  ut  omnia  festa  aboleantur,  solo  Dominico  Die  retento.— Lib.  ad 

Nobil.  Gprman.  Utinam  apud  Christianos  nullum  esset  festum,  nisi  die»  Dominicus. — 
De  Bon.  Oper.  *  Bucer  on  Matt  x.  11 


18  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Bernese,  were  among  the  reasons  of  their  banishment  from  that 
city.  On  their  departure,  the  holidays,  as  observed  in  Berne,  with 
certain  accompanying  rites,  were  re-established,  which,  however, 
were  again,  after  years  of  controversy,  abolished  by  the  people. 
Calvin  declared  that  he  had  no  hand  in  this,  though  he  was  not 
ranch  displeased  that  it  had  so  happened ;  and  that  had  he  been 
consulted,  he  would  not  have  given  his  opinion  in  favour  of  such  a 
measure.1  "  Nor  is  this,"  he  elsewhere  states,  "  the  only  church 
which  retained  no  solemnities  but  those  of  the  seventh  day ;  the 
same  custom  had  already  been  introduced  into  Strasburg."  In  no 
case  was  the  dismissal  of  such  observances  more  thorough  and 
permanent  than  in  Scotland.  The  First  Book  of  Discipline  de 
clares,  that  "  the  holidays  invented  by  men,  such  as  Christmas, 
Circumcision,  Epiphany,  Purification,  and  other  fond  feasts  of  our 
Lady,  with  the  feasts  of  the  apostles,  martyrs,  and  virgins,  witk 
others,  we  judge  utterly  to  be  abolished  forth  of  this  realm,  be 
cause  th^y  have  no  assurance  in  God's  Word."  When,  in  1566, 
the  Helvetic  Confession,  a  copy  of  which  was  sent  to  this  country, 
was  approved  by  a  number  of  the  superintendents,  with  some  of 
the  most  learned  ministers,  and  afterwards  by  the  General  Assem 
bly,  the  part  that  sanctioned  holy  days,  of  which  the  Church  of 
Scotland  rejected  all  but  the  Sabbath-day,  was  in  both  cases  ex- 
cepted  from  the  favourable  verdict.  In  the  General  Assembly, 
held  August  6,  1575,  it  was  enacted,  "That  all  days  which  here 
tofore  have  been  kept  holy,  besides  the  Sabbath-days,  such  as  Yule 
day,  saints'  days,  and  such  others,  may  be  abolished,  and  a  civil 
penalty  (be  appointed)  against  the  keepers  thereof  by  ceremonies, 
banquetting,  fasting,  and  such  other  vanities."2  Hence  the  boast 
of  King  James  vi.,  so  much  in  contrast  with  his  subsequent  pro 
ceedings  towards  his  native  land — when,  in  addressing  the  As 
sembly  of  1590,  he  praised  God  that  he  was  born  in  such  a  time 
as  in  the  time  of  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  such  a  place  as 
to  be  King  in  such  a  Kirk,  the  sincerest  kirk  in  the  world  :  "  The 
Kirk  of  Geneva,"  he  proceeded,  "  keepeth  Pasch  and  Yule.3  What 
have  they  for  them  1  They  have  no  institution.  As  for  our 

1  For  these  facts,  see  Calv.  Epist.  ad  nailer  et  ad  Min.  Bvr.  and  Bonnet's  Istit-s  oj 
Calvin,  i.  40,  46,  notes. 
a  Book  of  the  Univ.  Kirk  of  Scotland  (1S39),  p.  151.  »  Easter  and  Christmas. 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  19 

neighbour  Kirk  in  England,  their  service  is  an  evil-said  mass  in 
Eijglish  :  they  want  nothing  of  the  mass  but  the  liftings."1 

In  other  instances  the  success  of  the  Reformers  in  this  matter 
did  not  come  up  to  their  wishes.  We  learn  from  a  letter  of 
Bullioger  to  Calvin,  written  in  1551,  that  the  Church  of  Zurich 
had  recovered  her  tranquillity  after  no  small  discord  produced  by 
her  having  discarded  twelve  feast-days  of  Rome.  It  appears  from 
the  Acts  of  Synod  held  at  Dort  in  1574,  that  the  Belgic  Churches 
had  agreed  to  be  content  with  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.2 
But  the  magistrates  interfered  to  maintain  some  of  the  old  holi 
days,  so  that  the  Synod  held  at  the  same  place  in  1578  adopted 
a  modified  resolution,  to  the  effect — that  it  were  to  be  wished  that 
the  liberty  avowed  by  God  of  working  six  days  in  the  week  were 
retained  in  the  churches,  and  the  Lord's  Day  alone  devoted  to  rest; 
but  since  by  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  some  other  holidays 
are  observed — Christmas,  etc.,  the  ministers  of  the  Word  shall 
labour  by  their  preaching  to  turn  the  useless  and  hurtful  practice 
of  holiday-keeping,  or  idleness,  into  the  occasion  of  holy  and  pro 
fitable  employment,  aud  shall  do  the  same  in  cities  where  more 
festivals  are  kept  by  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  ;  and  that 
the  churches  shall  endeavour,  as  far  as  possible,  to  have  the  stated 
observance  of  every  feast,  except  Christmas,  Easter,  Ascension-day, 
and  Whitsunday,  abolished  with  all  due  speed.3  The  French 
Protestants  entertained  the  same  views,4  only  being  compelled  by 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  to  abstain  from  working  on  the  holidays  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  they  agreed  to  congregate  on  these 
days  either  for  hearing  the  word  preached,  or  for  prayer,  as  the 
consistories  might  find  convenient,  that  the  time  might  not  be 
spent  in  idleness  or  vice.5  In  England,  for  upwards  of  a  century- 
after  holiday  abuses  had  been  canvassed  in  the  Council  of  Con 
stance,  nothing  was  done  by  the  authorities  in  the  shape  of  remedy 
beyond  a  few  attempts  to  secure  the  better  observance  of  the 
existing  days.  In  1523,  six  years  after  Luther  had  begun  his 
career  of  reform,  Cuthbert,  bishop  of  London,  reduced  the  many 
anniversaries  of  church  dedications  in  his  diocese  to  one  annual 

i  Calderwood's  Hist.  (1678),  p.  286.  2  Kerkdyk  Hantboekje  (1738),  Art.  53. 

*  Kerkelyk  Hantbodye  (1738),  Art.  75,  Voet.  Disput.  Select,  iii.  1309. 

«  Fort,  ibid.  6  order  qf  Synod  at  Vitre,  Bruce'g  An.  Sec.  p.  30«. 


20  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTKOVERSIES. 

celebration,  "  in  order,"  as  he  said,  "  to  diminish  the  number  of 
holidays  which  encouraged  the  people  to  indulge  in  riotous  £x- 
cesses."1  But  the  most  effectual  assault  on  the  evil  was  that  of 
Henry  VIIL,  who,  having  broken  with  the  Pope,  and  set  him 
self  to  dissolve  the  monasteries,  authorized  Cromwell,  his  vicar- 
general,  to  declare  in  the  famous  convocation  of  June  1536,  "  that 
it  was  his  Majesty's  pleasure  that  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  should  be  reformed  by  the  rules  of  Scripture,  and  that 
nothing  should  be  maintained  which  did  not  rest  on  that  autho 
rity  ;"  following  up  the  intimation  of  this  noble  principle  with  an 
order  for  the  abolition,  as  demanded  by  the  moral  and  social  in 
terests  of  the  community,  of  "  the  feast  of  the  patron  of  every 
Church,  and  all  those  feasts  which  fall  either  in  harvest-time — 
July  1  to  Sept.  29 — or  in  term-time  at  Westminster,  except  the 
feasts  of  the  Apostles,  of  our  blessed  Lady,  and  of  St.  George,  and 
those  holidays  on  which  the  judges  were  not  wont  to  sit  in  judg 
ment."  This  order  distinguishes  "the  Sabbath-day  "  from  holi 
days  "  instituted  by  man."  The  fickle  monarch,  by  an  ordinance 
in  1541,  restored  the  feasts  of  St.  Luke,  St.  Mark,  and  St.  Mary 
Magdalene,  "  their  names  being  often  and  many  times  mentioned 
in  plain  and  manifest  Scripture,"  but  the  feasts  of  the  Inven 
tion,  Exaltation  of  Holy  Cross,  and  St.  Lawrence,  were  abolished. 
"  Divers  superstitions  and  childish  observances  "  were  also  placed 
under  ban.  And  thus  was  fixed — except  that  the  feast  of  St. 
Mary  Magdalene  was  excluded  in  1552 — the  precise  number  of 
holidays  which  is  still  to  be  found  in  the  Prayer-book. 

The  conflict  of  the  Keformers  with  the  Church  of  Kome  on  the 
subject  before  us  was  soon  ended.  That  Church  was  true  to  her 
motto,  "  Always  the  same."  After  the  Reformers  had  laboured 
for  years  to  correct  abuses  of  every  kind,  these  were  all  stereotyped 
by  the  Council  of  Trent.  Rome  even  Asserted  more  daringly  an 
authority  overtimes  and  seasons ;  and  so  late  as  1549,  consigned 
to  the  flames  a  poor  man  who  ventured  to  maintain  his  right  to 
work  on  one  of  her  festival  days  that  he  might  not  starve.2  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Reformed  Churches  generally  settled  down  in 
the  observances  which  they  were  able  to  secure.  Although  most 
of  their  leaders  failed  to  attain  in  this  respect  all  that  they  desired. 

1  WOk.  Condi  iii.  701.      Fox's  Acts  and  Mon.,  Table  of  French  Martyrs,  K.  Hen.  vm. 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.    .  21 

much  nevertheless  was  gained.  Happy  had  it  been,  as  events 
have  shown,  for  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  all  the  Churches,  if 
they  had  adopted  the  principle,  that  the  Lord's  Day  is  the  only 
stated  holy  day  appointed  by  Christ,  who  has,  however,  given  to 
his  followers  the  right  of  appropriating  occasional  seasons  for 
public  worship  as  circumstances  may  require.  But  the  popular 
prejudice  operated  so  strongly  in  various  parts  of  Europe,  as  to 
prevent  so  desirable  a  consummation.  There  were  many,  however, 
in  England  who  were  not  satisfied  with  this  state  of  things,  and 
hence  a  contest,  earnest  and  prolonged,  on  the  subject  of  rites  and 
ceremonies  among  the  Protestants  of  that  country,  which  resulted 
in  the  expatriation  of  many  of  her  best  people,  and  in  the  disrup 
tion  of  the  Church.  - 

In  this  contest,  as  in  others  already  noticed,  there  was  on  the 
one  side  power,  the  power  of  the  oppressor.  In  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  valuable  though  the  services  rendered  to  the  Reforma 
tion  were,  acts  were  passed  and  measures  employed,  in  not  a  few 
instances  through  the  active  influence  of  the  Queen,  which  grieved 
the  hearts  of  good  men,  and  excluded  from  their  churches,  reduced 
to  poverty,  consigned  to  prison,  or  forced  into  banishment,  thou 
sands  of  ministers — a  third,  says  Hume,1  of  all  the  ecclesiastics 
in  the  kingdom,  many  of  them  learned  and  excellent  men — because 
they  could  not  conscientiously  submit  to  unnecessary  compliances, 
which  no  earthly  power  had  the  right  to  exact.  The  consequent 
results  to  the  nation  were,  that  great  numbers  of  churches  were 
without  ministers,  and  that  three  thousand  others  were  supplied 
with  mere  readers  who  could  not  preach  at  all,  to  the  promotion 
everywhere  of  Popery,  ungodliness,  and  immorality.2 

It  was  expected  that  on  the  accession  of  James  to  the  throne 
of  England,  a  prince  who  had  avowed  his  attachment  to  "  the 
sincerest  kirk  in  the  world,"  and  his  abhorrence  of  every  vestige  of 
Popery,  would  do.  justice  to  the  persecuted  and  their  cause.  A 
deputation  of  the  Puritans,  accordingly,  presented  to  his  Majesty 
during  his  progress  to  London,  the  celebrated  Millenary  address, 
entitled  "  The  humble  Petition  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Church  of 
England,  desiring  reformation  of  certain  ceremonies  and  abuses  of 
the  Church,"  in  which  they  say,  "  that  being  more  than  a  thou- 

»  Hist.  (1805),  vol.  v.  p.  463.  2  Brook's  Puritans,  i.  60 

, 


42  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  COIsTKOVERSIES. 

sand  ministers  groaning  under  the  burden  of  human  rites  and 
ceremonies,  they  with  one  consent  threw  themselves  at  his  royal 
feet,  for  a  reformation  in  the  Church-service,  ministry,  livings, 
and  discipline,"  praying  1{  that  the  Lord's  Day  be  not  profaned, 
and  the  rest  upon  holidays  not  so  strictly  urged."  The  petitioners 
had  their  fears  as  well  as  hopes,  but  they  were  not  kept  in  sus 
pense.  The  king  soon  after  declared  at  the  Hampton  Conference, 
that  "  he  would  compel  them  to  conform,  or  '  harrie'  them  out 
of  the  land,  or  else  -do  worse  ;"  and  in  his  first  Parliament  avowed, 
that  while  he  was  content  to  meet  "  our  Mother-Church,"  the 
Church  of  Rome,  half  way,  the  Puritans  were  insufferable  in  any 
well-regulated  state.  Accordingly,  four  hundred  of  his  petitioners 
were  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  cast  into  prison,  or  driven  from 
their  country.  These  doings  were  followed  by  the  introduction 
into  Scotland  of  Prelacy,  and  four  holidays  against  "  the  sense  of 
the  Kirk  and  nation,"  and  with  consequences  the  most  disastrous 
to  both.  Measures  more  atrocious  were  employed  against  the 
Nonconformists  in  England  and  the  Presbyterians  in  Scotland,  by 
Charles  i.,  till  both  parts  of  the  kingdom  were  roused  to  arms, 
and  Laud,  the  chief  instigator  of  persecution,  and  the  King 
himself,  perished  on  the  scaffold.  Under  the  remarkable  rule 
which  succeeded,  and  which,  absolute  though  it  was,  granted  full 
toleration  to  all  professing  Christians,  the  Parliament  passed  an 
ordinance,  setting  aside  all  festivals,  commonly  called  holidays, 
and  appointing  the  second  Tuesday  in  each  mouth  to  be  a  day  of 
recreation  "  for  all  scholars,  apprentices,  and  other  servants,  the 
leave  and  approbation  of  their  masters  being  first  had  and  ob 
tained."  The  restored  monarchy  and  ecclesiastical  system  brought 
with  them  the  increased  oppression  of  the  Puritans,  of  which  the 
crowning  instance  in  the  time  of  Charles  n.  was  the  passing  in 
1662,  of  the  "Act  of  Uniformity,"  requiring  every  one  to  con 
form  to  the  Prayer-book,  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  and 
causing  the  deprivation  of  nearly  two  thousand  five  hundred 
ministers,  the  death  of  three  thousand  nonconformists,  and  the 
ruin  of  sixty  thousand  families.  The  undiminished  severity  of 
the  following  reign  is  clearly  indicated,  when  to  the  mention  of 
the  name  of  Jeffreys,  it  is  added,  that  no  dissenting  minister  could 
appear  in  public,  or  travel,  except  in  disguise,  and  that  fourteen 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  23 

hundred  and  sixty  Quakers  were  in  prison,  not  for  crime,  but  for 
nonconformity. 

There  is  no  satisfaction  in  recalling  these  depraved  exhibitions 
of  our  common  nature,  except  with  the  view  of  serving  the  ends 
of  utility  and  truth.  And  it  is  pleasant  to  turn  from  them  to  the 
succession  of  noble-minded  men  who  sympathized  with  the  victims 
of  wrong,1  and  to  the  salutary  effects  of  measures  which,  though 
they  set  at  nought  the  claims  of  justice  and  humanity,  expatriated 
some  thirty  thousand  citizens,  and  drained  the  country  of  so  much 
of  its  wealth  and  moral  worth,  were,  under  Providence,  the 
occasion  of  establishing  our  rights  at  the  Revolution,  of  training  a 
race  of  men  who  have  made  America  and  England  what  they  are, 
and  of  sounding  in  the  ears  of  oppressors  notes  of  warning  which 
can  never  die  away. 

From  the  circumstances  of  the  Puritans,  it  might  be  presumed 
that  there  could  be  little  intellectual  controversy  on  questions 
which  were  summarily  disposed  of  by  authority.  When,  as  in 
the  days  of  Elizabeth,  a  person  for  saying,  "that  to  keep  the 
Queen's  birthday  as  a  holy  day  was  to  make  her  an  idol,"  might 
be  committed  to  the  Fleet,  and  another  for  vindicating  him,  might 
be  sent  to  the  Marshalsea, — when,  as  at  the  Hampton  Court 
Conference,  and  on  many  other  occasions,  the  Puritans  were  sub 
jected  to  browbeating  and  abuse, — and  when,  as  afterwards,  a 
physician,  for  denying  the  Divine  right  of  bishops  above  presby 
ters,  a  barrister  for  writing  against  plays,  and  two  ministers  for 
publishing  pamphlets  against  recent  innovations  and  prelacy 
respectively,  were  degraded,  imprisoned,  fined,  and,  in  two  of  the 
cases,  barbarously  maimed  in  their  persons,  it  may  be  conceived, 
that  the  prosecutors  had  no  need,  and  the  sufferers  small  encour 
agement,  to  enter  the  arena  of  disputation.  Yet  the  former  did 
sometimes  descend  from  their  vantage  ground,  and  the  latter, 

i  The  Earls  of  Bedford  and  Warwick,  Lord  Rich,  Sir  Francis  Knollys,  Sir  William 
Cecil,  Beza,  the  General  Assembly,  the  Parliament  at  various  times,  Mr.  Attorney 
Morrice,  Archbishops  Grindal  and  Abbot  (repeatedly),  Bishops  Rudd  and  Williams,  etc. 
Grindal  for  his  favour  to  the  Puritans  was  under  censure  for  some  years,  and  Williams  for 
saying  that  "  they  were  the  King's  best  subjects,  and  he  was  sure  they  would  carry  all 
at  last,"  was  fined  £11,000,  and  committed  to  the  Tower,  his  library  and  goods  being 
gold  to  pay  the  fine,  to  which  was  added  a  fine  of  £8000  on  the  discovery  among  hia 
papers  of  two  letters  addressed  to  him,  and  containing  certain  dark  expressions. 


24  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

under  all  their  disabilities,  ventured  to  encounter  them,  or  even  to 
be  the  assailants.  Howe  has  condensed  the  history  of  the  conflict 
before  his  time  in  his  letter  to  Bishop  Barlow  :  "  Few  metaphy 
sical  questions  are  disputed  with  nicer  subtlety  than  the  matter  of 
the  ceremonies  has  been  by  Archbishop  Whitgift,  Cartwright, 
Hooker,  Parker,1  Dr.  Burgess,  Dr.  Ames,  Gillespy,  Jeanes,2 
Calderwood,  Dr.  Owen,  Baxter,  etc."  3 

The  subject  had,  indeed,  been  canvassed  in  the  days  of  Edward 
vi.,  when  Hooper  and  others,  supported  by  a  majority  of  the 
reforming  clergy,  contended  against  the  vestments  and  other  relics 
of  Popery,  and  again  during  the  earlier  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
particularly  in  the  Convocation  of  1562,  at  which  the  petition  for 
the  removal  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  was  rejected  by  a  single 
proxy  vote.  But  Howe  has  accurately  commenced  his  list  with 
the  names  of  Whitgift  and  Cartwright,  since  it  was  not  till  these 
learned  men — professors  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Cam 
bridge — wrote,  that  the  points  of  difference  received  a  full  and 
formal  discussion.  They  published  each  two  works,  in  the  course 
of  the  years  1572-77,  which  nearly  exhausted  the  question.  How 
Cartwright  acquitted  himself  on  the  occasion  may  be  conceived 
from  Beza's  recommendation  of  him  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  a 
person  far  better  qualified  to  refute  "  the  Rhemish  New  Testa 
ment  "  than  he  himself  was ;  and  from  the  words  upon  another 
occasion  of  the  same  reformer  when  writing  to  a  friend  in  England 
he  said,  "  Here  is  now  with  us  your  countryman,  Thomas  Cart 
wright,  than  whom,  I  think,  the  sun  doth  not  see  a  more  learned 
man."  4  Whitgift's  part  in  the  controversy  has  been  pronounced 
learned,  and,  in  some  instances,  eloquent.  But  it  lay  open  to  this 
cutting  remark  of  Ballard,  a  Popish  priest,  "  I  would  desire  no 
better  books  to  prove  my  doctrine  of  Popery  than  Whitgift's 
against  Cartwright,  and  his  injunctions  set  forth  in  her  Majesty's 
name."  5  Within  a  few  years  there  followed  a  discussion  between 

1  Robert  Parker,  a  rector  of  the  Church,  author  of  De  Politico.  Ecdesiastica,  an  able 
treatise. 

2  Henry  Jeanes,  also  a  rector,  and  according  to  Wood,  "a  noted  and  ready  disputant, 
*  noted  metaphysician."    He  is  the  author  of  controversial  publications  against  Good 
win,  Milton,  Drs.  Hammond  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  of  a  subtlety  quite  according  to  Sir  W 
Hamilton's  own  heart ;  and,  also,  of  several  excellent  sermons. 

»  Works  (1836),  p.  23.  *  Clark's  Lives,  pp.  18,  19.         »  Strype's  Whitgift,  p.  285. 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  25 

Hooker  and  Travers,  when  both  were  lecturers  at  the  Temple. 
Travers  was  silenced  by  authority.  Declining  an  invitation  to  a 
professorship  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  he  accepted  the 
provostship  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  where  he  had  Ussher  as  a 
pupil.  He  had  a  principal  share  in  the  composition  of  the  Book 
of  Discipline,  afterwards  the  ecclesiastical  directory  of  the  Com 
monwealth.  The  dispute  brought  out  the  remarkable  sentence 
from  Hooker, — *'  Schisms  and  disturbances  will  arise  in  the  Church, 
if  all  men  may  be  tolerated  to  think  as  they  please,  and  publicly 
speak  what  they  think."  But  its  chief  result  was,  that  by  means 
of  it  he  was  induced  to  prepare  his  great  work,  for  which  purpose 
he  withdrew  to  a  more  retired  situation.  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
has  received  even  from  those  most  unfriendly  to  its  views  the 
praise  of  extraordinary  erudition,  research,  eloquence,  and  modera 
tion  ;  and  of  having  superseded  all  other  defences  of  the  Church 
of  England.  But  it  has  been  too  truly  said,  that,  if  written  in 
support  of  the  Popish  hierarchy  and  ritual,  the  greater  part  of  it 
would  have  required  little  alteration. 

The  name  of  Dr.  Ames,  or  Amesius,  has  given  importance  and 
fame  to  a  contest  between  him  and  Bishop  Morton,  with  Dr.  Bur 
gess,  on  whom  the  bishop  devolved  the  task  of  defending  his  work 
on  The  Innocence  of  the  Three  Ceremonies.  Dr.  Ames  had  suf 
fered  for  his  nonconformity,  having  been  obliged  to  retire  to  Hol 
land,  whither  he  was  pursued  by  the  hostile  influence  even  of 
Archbishop  Abbot,  who  procured  his  removal  from  the  English 
Church  at  the  Hague,  of  which  he  had  been  chosen  minister,  and 
prevented  his  appointment  to  a  chair  in  the  University  of  Leyden. 
He  was  for  twelve  years  the  admired  professor  of  divinity  at 
Franeker.  His  third  work  in  the  controversy,  A  Fresh  Suit 
against  Human  Ceremonies  in  God's  Worship,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  1633,  after  the  death  of  its  author,  and  was  the  means 
of  converting  Baxter  to  nonconformity  on  several  points,  is,  says 
Orme,  "  one  of  the  most  able  works  of  the  period,  on  the  subject 
on  which  it  treats.  Its  author  was  a  man  of  profound  learning, 
great  acuteness,  and  eminent  piety.  .  .  .  Though  not  professedly  an 
answer  to  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  it  embraces  everything 
of  importance  in  that  noted  work."1 

i  Life  and  Times  of  Richard  Baxter,  p.  19. 


26          SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

The  imposition  of  Prelacy,  and  Mie  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  on 
the  people  of  Scotland,  extended  the  controversy  to  that  country, 
where  men  of  na  ordinary  endowments  were  found  prepared  to 
defend  their  religious  polity.  Henderson  stood  forward  in  the 
Assembly  of  1618,  to  oppose  the  innovations,  and  was,  along  with 
Calderwood  and  others,  author  of  a  book  (1619)  proving  the  nullity 
of  that  Assembly.  The  Course  of  Conformitie  (1622)  seems  to  have 
been  the  production  of  William  Scot,  minister  of  Cupar-Fife.1  Mr, 
John  Murray,  minister  of  Leith,  and  afterwards  of  Dunfermline, 
was  the  author  of  A  Dialogue,  etc.  (1620),  on  the  recent  innova 
tions.  In  a  memoir  of  this  individual,  Dr.  M'Crie  remarks,  "  As 
Christian  experience  and  practical  godliness  have  been  so  often 
pressed  to  the  disparagement  of  all  contendings  about  the  external 
form  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  it  may  be  observed,  that  in 
this  eminent  person  they  were  closely  united,  as  they  have  been 
in  *  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses  with  which  we  are  compassed 
about.'  "2  It  may  be  added,  that  even  were  the  latter  class  of 
subjects  admitted  to  be  on  some  accounts  less  important  than  the 
other,  it  is  "  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  who  breaks  or 
teaches  men  to  break  one  of  these  least  commandments,"  and  "the 
great"  in  that  kingdom  who  "  do  and  teach  these  commandments." 
The  Nonconformists  both  in  England  and  in  Scotland  were  reli 
giously  and  morally,  as  well  as  intellectually,  the  elite  of  the  com 
munity.  It  was  not  among  them  that  the  profane,  the  dishonest, 
the  dissolute,  and  the  ignorant  were  to  be  found.  Circumstances 
sometimes  required  of  them,  as  in  the  case  of  Calderwood,  to  devote 
their  energies  to  the  defence  of  points  connected  with  ecclesiastical 
government  and  discipline.  But  it  will  generally  be  found  that 
their  writers  were  still  more  prolific  on  subjects  of  doctrine  and 
personal  piety,  and  that  they  were  the  contributors  of  our  best 
works  in  both  these  departments.  Jeanes,  Ames,  Owen,  and 
Baxter,  are  a  few  out  of  many  instances.  The  spirit  of  Adam  Gib 
has  been  common  among  such  men  :  "  I  have  used,"  he  says,  "  my 
best  endeavours  all  along,"  for  forty-five  years,  "  through  { evil 
report  and  good  report,'  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  Secession  tes 
timony  which  I  profess,  on  behalf  of  the  Keformation-principles  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  against  the  manifold  errors  and  corrup- 

i  Scot's Narr.,  Pre.f.  p.  vi.  note(Wod.  Soc.  Works>       a  Miscell.  Writi-ng8(lM\),  p.  151 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  27 

tions  of  the  present  age.  But  I  have  very  seldom  entertained  my 
hearers  from  the  pulpit  with  any  peculiarities  of  that  cause.  It 
has  been  always  my  principal,  and  almost  only  business  there,  to 
explain  and  enforce  those  doctrines  and  duties  which  are  accounted 
of  among  Christians  of  all  denominations,  so  far  as  they  take  the 
substance  of  their  Christianity  from  the  Bible.  And  I  have  a 
particular  satisfaction  in  this  providential  ordering,  that  my  former 
appearances  before  the  world,  in  favour  of  the  special  testimony 
which  I  have  espoused,  are  succeeded  by  the  present  appearance 
on  behalf  of  the  common  interests  of  Christianity."1  A  work  of 
Gillespie,  under  the  title,  TJie  English  Popish  Ceremonies  obtruded 
upon  the  Church  of  Scotland  (1G37),  though  the  production  of 
a  mere  youth,  was  deemed  worthy  of  being  "  discharged  by  a 
proclamation."  Baillie  extols  it  as  a  marvellous  composition,  and 
."  far  above  such  an  age."2  But  the  most  voluminous  writer  on 
the  subject  was  Calderwood,  author  of  the  True  History  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  (1678),  who,  besides  replies  to  Dr.  Morton 
maintaining  his  "innocent"  to  be  "nocent"  ceremonies  (1623), 
a  Re-examination  of  the  Five  Articles  enacted  at  Perth,  etc.  (1636), 
with  other  books  and  tracts,  published  in  1623  the  Altar e  Da- 
mascenum,  "  beyond  comparison  the  most  learned  and  elaborate 
work  ever  written  on  the  subject,  embracing  the  whole  contro 
versy  between  the  English  and  Scottish  Churches  as  to  govern 
ment,  discipline,  and  worship.  It  was  never  answered,  nor  is  it 
easy  to  see  how  it  could  be  answered.  It  was  held  in  high  esti 
mation  by  foreign  divines,  having  been  printed  more  than  once  on 
the  Continent."3 

It  would  be  unnecessary  to  dwell  on  the  writings  of  the  decided 

1  Sacred  Contemplations,  Preface — a  work  which  discovers  a  profound  acquaintance 
with  Divine  truth,  and  powers  of  vigorous  thinking  and  writing,  even  when  its  author 
was  in  his  seventy-third  year. 

2  Stevenson's  History,  ii.  p.  217.     Baillie's  Letters,  i.  pp.  67,  68. 

3  M'Crie's  Miscell.  Writings  (1S41),  words  of  the  editor,  p.  78.     In  au  advertisement 
to  the  reader,  prefixed  to  the  Leyden  edition  (170S)  of  the  Altare  Damascenum,  we  have 
the  now  well-known  remark  of  James  i.,  the  implacable  enemy  of  Calderwood,  that  the 
work  was  unanswerable,  as  there  was  nothing  in  it  but  Scripture,  reason,  and  the 
Fathers.     In  his  Appendix  to  his  History,  Spotswood,  another  enemy,  is  constrained  to 
acknowledge  its  consummate  erudition.     It  is  mentioned  by  Orme  as  one  of  the  means 
by  which  Baxter  was  brought  to  "the  full  conviction  that  the  English  Episcopacy  is  a 
totally  different  thing  from  the  primitive,  that  it  had  corrupted  the  churches  and  th« 
ministry,  and  destroyed  all  Christian  discipline."— Life  of  Baxter,  pp.  22,  33 


28          SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Owen,  or  of  the  more  moderate  Baxter,  in  this  controversy,  or  to 
recall  the  lucubrations  of  Bancroft  and  Durell,  with  those  of  their 
respective  opponents,  Bradshaw  and  Hickman.  And  it  is  suffi 
cient,  to  do  little  more  than  name  the  remaining  principal  writers 
on  our  subject,  Nicholls  and  Pierce,  who  present  the  substance 
of  the  controversy  between  the  Church  and  the  Nonconformists  ; 
Calamy  and  Bishop  Hoadly,  whose  writings  have  been  said  to 
give  the  fullest  view  of  the  points  of  difference  between  these 
parties  to  be  found  in  our  language  ;  and,  in  reference  to  holidays 
in  particular,  Wheatly,  who  has  done  justice  to  the  arguments 
for  such  seasons,1  with  Professor  Brace  of  Whitburn,  who  applied 
his  remarkable  powers  and  acquirements  to  a  work  in  which  he 
endeavours  to  prove  that  holidays  are  contrary  to  Scripture,  and 
fraught  with  injury  to  the  best  interests  of  society.2 

We  may  add,  that  it  fitly'devolved  on  the  intimate  friend  of 
Bruce,  Dr.  M'Crie,  to  appear  in  defence  of  the  principles  of  the 
Scottish  Reformation,  when,  in  1817,  the  Court  papers  announced 
that  the  churches  throughout  the  country  were  to  be  opened  for 
divine  service  on  the  day  appointed  for  the  funeral  of  the  Princess 
Charlotte.  The  late  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  positively  refused  to 
comply  with  the  order.  A  discussion  ensued,  which,  after  several 
pamphlets  had  appeared  on  both  sides,  was  terminated  by  a  pub 
lication  from  the  pen  of  Dr.'  M'Crie3  under  the  name  of  Scoto- 
Britannus,  a-  brochure  not  discreditable  to  the  philosophy  and 
genius  of  the  distinguished  author. 

As  to  the  question  of  the  propriety  of  those  measures  which 
were  employed  to  compel  compliance  with  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  the  dominant  Church,  we  believe  that  the  progress  of  know 
ledge  has  left,  in  the  minds  of  all  enlightened  Protestants,  no 
doubt  that  such  measures  were  inexpedient,  incompetent,  and  un 
just.  On  the  question,  however,  of  the  appointment  of  stated 
days  for  the  commemoration  of  good  men,  or  of  some  remarkable 
particulars  in  the  life  of  Christ,  there  is  still  a  difference  of  opinion. 
Wheatly  thus  defends  the  practice  as  regards  "  the  remembrance 

1  In  Rational  Illustration,  etc.,  ch.  v.  Of  the,  Sundays  and  Holydays. 

«  Annus  Secularis,  or  the  British  Jubike,  etc.  (1788.) 

8  Free  Thoughts  on  the  Late  Religious  Celebration  of  the  Funeral  of  her  Royal  Highness 
the  Princess  Charlotte  of  Wales  ;  and  on  the  Discussion  to  which  it  has  pven  rise  in  Edin 
burgh.— See  Dr.  M'Crie's  Miscell.  Writing*,  pp.  356,  357- 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  29 

of  some  special  acts  and  passages  of  our  Lord  in  the  redemption 
of  mankind."  "That  the  observation  of  such  days  is  requisite, 
is  evident  from  the  practice  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles.  Nature 
taught  the  one,  and  God  the  other,  that  the  celebration  of  solemn 
festivals  was  a  part  of  the  public  exercise  of  religion.  Besides 
the  feasts  of  the  Passover,  of  Weeks,  and  of  Tabernacles,  which 
were  all  of  Divine  appointment,  the  Jews  celebrated  some  of  their 
own  institution,  viz.,  the  feast  of  Purim,  and  the  Dedication  of 
the  Temple,  the  latter  of  which  even  our  blessed  Saviour  himself 
honoured  with  his  presence.  As  to  the  celebration  of  Christian 
festivals,  the  first  Christians  thought  themselves  as  much  obliged 
to  observe  them  as  the  Jews  were  to  observe  theirs.  They  had 
received  greater  benefits,  and  therefore  it  would  have  been  the 
highest  degree  of  ingratitude  to  have  been  less  zealous  in  comme 
morating  them.  And,  accordingly,  we  find  that  in  the  very  in 
fancy  of  Christianity,  some  certain  days  were  yearly  set  apart  to 
commemorate  the  Resurrection  and  Ascension  of  Christ,  the  coming 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  etc.,  and  to  glorify  God  by  a  humble  arid 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  these  mercies  granted  to  them  at  those 
times.  Which  laudable  and  religious  custom  so  soon  prevailed 
over  the  universal  Church,  that  in  five  hundred  years  after  our 
Saviour,  we  meet  with  them  distinguished  by  the  same  names  we 
now  call  them  by  ;  such  as  Epiphany,  Ascension-day,  Whitsunday, 
etc.,  and  appointed  to  be  observed  on  those  days  on  which  the 
Church  of  England  now  observes  them."1  In  the  absence  of  a 
summary  by  any  eminent  writer  of  the  argument  on  the  other 
side,  we  present  two  or  three  brief  extracts  from  the  writings  of 
Amesitis  and  Owen.  The  former,  in  the  preface  to  his  Fresh  Suit, 
says  : — "  The  state  of  this  war  is  this  ;  we,  as  it  becometh  Chris 
tians,  stand  upon  the  sufficiency  of  Christ's  institutions  for  all  kind 
of  worship.  The  Word,  say  we,  and  nothing  but  the  Word,  in 
matters  of  religious  worship.  The  prelates  rise  up  on  the  other 
side,  and  will  needs  have  us  allow  and  use  certain  human  cere 
monies  in  our  Christian  worship.  We  desire  to  be  excused  as 
holding  them  unlawful.  Christ  we  know,  and  all  that  cometh 
from  Him  we  are  ready  to  embrace  ;  but  these  human  ceremonies 
we  know  not,  nor  can  have  anything  to  do  with  them.  Upon 

1  Rational  Illustration,  ete.  Of  the  Sundays  and  Holydayt,  ch.  v.  Introd. 


80  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

this  they  make  fierce  war  upon  us  ;  and  yet  lay  all  the  fault  of 
this  war,  and  the  mischiefs  of  it,  on  our  backs."  In  his  Truth 
and  Innocence  Vindicated,  Dr.  Owen  shows  that  all  worship  under 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  was  to  be  exclusively  of  Divine  appoint 
ment  (Exod.  xx.  4,  5  ;  xl.  ;  Deut.  iv.  2  ;  xii.  32  ;  1  Kings  xii. 
33  ;  Prov.  xxx.  6  ,  MaL  iv.  4)  ;  that  every  human  addition  to  it 
was.  rejected  in  that  word  of  the  blessed  Holy  One,  "  In  vain  do 
they  worship  me,  teaching  for  doctrines  the  commandments  of 
men  ;"  that  the  churches  of  the  New  Testament  had  their  foun 
dation  laid  in  the  command  of  our  Saviour,  "  Go  ye,  and  disciple 
all  nations,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have 
commanded  you  ;"  that  his  presence  was  promised,  "  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  always,"  to  accompany  the  teaching  and  observance  of 
His  own  ordinances,  not  of  any  human  super-additions  ;  and  that 
in  no  one  instance  did  the  apostles  impose  anything  on  the  prac 
tice  of  the  churches  in  the  worship  of  God,  to  be  necessarily  or 
for  a  continuance  observed  among  them,  but  what  had  the  express 
warrant  and  authority  of  our  Lord  Christ.1  "  I  shall  take  leave 
to  say,"  are  his  words  in  his  treatise  on  Communion  with  God, 
"  what  is  on  my  heart,  and  what  (the  Lord  assisting)  I  shall  will 
ingly  make  good  against  all  the  world,  namely,  that  that  prin 
ciple,  that  the  Church  hath  power  to  institute  and  appoint  any 
thing  or  ceremony  belonging  to  the  worship  of  God,  either  as  to 
matter  or  to  manner,  beyond  the  orderly  observance  of  such  cir 
cumstances  as  necessarily  attend  such  ordinances  as  Christ  himself 
hath  instituted,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  horrible  superstition 
and  idolatry,  of  all  the  confusion,  blood,  persecution,  and  wars, 
that  have  for  so  long  a  season  spread  themselves  over  the  Chris 
tian  world  ;  and  that  it  is  the  design  of  a  great  part  of  the  reve 
lation  to  make  a  discovery  of  this  truth."2 

It  is  more  than  probable,  that,  when  men  of  the  greatest  learn 
ing,  wisdom,  and  piety,  engage  earnestly  in  a  controversy,  perse 
vere  in  it,  and  "  suffer  the  loss  of  all  things,"  rather  than  abandon 
the  principles  which  they  conceive  it  to  involve,  the  matter  in 
dispute  is  no  trifle.  What  must  raise  this  probability  as  to  the 
case  before  us  into  certainty,  are  the  two  considerations  ;  first, 
that  such  questions  had  to  be  settled  as.  Whether  Christ  be  the 

i  Works  (1826),  xxi.  336,  387,  *  Hid.  x.  184,  186. 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  HOLIDAYS.  31 

sole  lawgiver  in  his  Church  1  and  Whether  the  Scriptures  be  a  suf 
ficient  rule  of  worship  ?  and,  second,  that  history  has  proved  the 
opinions  on  one  side  to  have  been  productive  of  great  good,  and, 
on  the  other,  of  incalculable  evil.  And  if  we  bear  in  mind  the 
superior  intelligence  and  morals'  of  the  Puritans  as  a  body  to  those 
of  their  neighbours — the  impossibility  of  vindicating  the  ceremo 
nies  without  striking  at  the  above-mentioned  scriptural  principles, 
and  at  Protestantism  generally — with  the  results  of  the  systems, 
written,  respectively,  in  the  blessings  of  knowledge,  religion,  and 
prosperity,  and  in  the  reverse,  we  seem  to  have  the  means  of  de 
termining,  along  with  the  value  of  the  contest,  the  side  on  which 
the  truth  lay  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  one  class  of  opinions  were 
importantly  right,  and  the  other  gravely  wrong.  How  happy  for 
the  Church  of  England  were  she  warned  by  her  own  history,  and 
the  recent  mutinies  in  her  camp,  yet  to  fulfil  the  desires  of  her 
early  reformers  by  purging  away  her  remaining  Popery  !  And 
how  sad  for  the  churches  in  Scotland,  should  they,  instead  of 
holding  fast  and  making  real  progress,  come  to  weary  of  their 
simple  religious  forms,  and  yield  to  the  insidious  attempts  of 
recreant  sons  to  secularize  a  system  of  polity  and  worship  which 
has  been  the  glory  and  blessing  of  their  country  !  On  this  sub 
ject  let  us  employ  the  weighty  words  of  a  distinguished  Scot 
tish  writer  :  "  This  thorough  reform  " — the  "  abolishing  at  the 
Reformation  of  holidays,  and  a  multitude  of  other  ceremonies  " — 
says  M'Crie,  "  constitutes  the  high  distinction  of  Scotland  among 
the  Protestant  Churches.  Its  beneficial  influence  has  extended 
to  all  departments  of  society ;  it  has  improved  our  temporal  as 
well  as  our  spiritual  welfare  ;  it  has  freed  us  from  many  galling 
impositions  which  diminish  the  comforts  and  fret  the  spirits  of 
other  nations.  It  may  be  seen  in  the  superior  information  of  our 
people,  in  their  freedom  from  childish  fears  and  vulgar  prejudices, 
in  the  purity  of  their  morals,  and  in  that  practical  regard  which, 
unconstrained  by  forms,  and  unattracted  by  show,  they  voluntarily 
pay  to  the  ordinances  of  religion.  One  of  the  worst  symptoms  of 
our  state,  and  which  may  justly  occasion  foreboding  apprehensions, 
is,  that  we  are  not  duly  sensible  of  our  privileges,  nor  aware  of 
the  cause  to  which,  under  Providence,  we  are  principally  to  ascribe 
them  •  and  that  there  are  many  among  us  whose  conduct  gives 


32  SKETCHES  OP  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

too  much  ground  to  suspect  that  they  would  be  ready  to  part  at 
a  very  cheap  rate  with  those  privileges  which  their  fathers  so 
dearly  won. 

'  0  fortunatos  nimium  sua  si  bona  norint.' 

....  If  ever  the  time  come  when  the  attachment  of  the  people 
of  Scotland  to  Presbytery  shall  be  loosened  and  give  way,  its 
effects  will  not  be  confined  to  religion.  To  this  attachment — to  the 
soul-inspiring  recollections  by  which  it  has  been  cherished — to  the 
unfettered  genius  of  our  worship — to  our  exemption  from  the  be 
numbing  bondage  of  recurring  holidays,  political  or  religious,  and 
from  forms  of  prayer  dictated  on  particular  occasions  by  the  Court, 
and  to  the  freedom  of  discussion  yet  retained  in  our  ecclesiastical 
assemblies,  we  hesitate  not  to  ascribe,  more  than  to  any  other  cause, 
the  preservation  of  public  spirit  and  independence,  which  many 
things  in  our  political  situation  and  local  circumstances  have  a 
powerful  tendency  to  weaken  and  to  crush.  Those  who  view  every 
expression  of  these  feelings  with  jealousy,  will,  of  course,  encourage 
or  connive  at  whatever  is  calculated  to  blunt  them.  But  all  who 
wish  well  to  the  public  spirit  of  Scotland,  as  well  as  to  her  reli- 
giofls  purity,  are  called  upon  to  deprecate  and  resist  such  acts  of 
conformity.  And  this  resistance  cannot  be  opposed  to  the  evil  at 
too  early  a  stage. 

'  Principiis  obsta ;  sero  medicina  paratur, 
Cum  mala  per  longas  invaluere  moras.'  "  l 

ENGLAND. 

No  country  has  owed  more  to  the  Lord's  Day  than  Scotland, 
and  in  none  was  the  institution  more  indebted  to  the  Reformation. 
There  it  rose  at  once,  from  a  position  almost  on  a  level  with  Rome's 
crowd  of  fasts  and  feasts,  to  its  proper  honours  as  the  one  perma 
nent  holy  day  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  other  Protestant 
lands  its  claims  were  neither  so  definitely  settled  nor  so  fully 
recognised.  Among  the  evils  remaining  unredressed,  not  the  least 
important  were  certain  days  of  man's  consecration — those  plants, 
which,  as  not  of  divine  planting,  the  Reformers  would  have 
"  rooted  up,"  but  which,  left  to  cluster  round  the  sacred  treve  of 

i  Miscett.  Writings,  pp  674,  J>85. 


ENGLAND.  33 

liberty,  drew  to  themselves  the  nourishment  necessary  to  its 
vigour  and  luxuriance.  It  is  a  matter  rather  of  regret  than 
marvel,  that  these  great  and  good  men,  in  exposing  the  prevalent 
error  that  the  observance,  however  perfunctory,  of  rites  and  holy 
days,  atoned  for  sin  and  exhausted  moral  obligation,  should  have 
let  fall  expressions  in  reference  to  the  Lord's  Day,  hardly  reconcil 
able  with  their  decided  testimonies  on  other  occasions  to  its 
authority  and  excellence,  or  with  their  practical  regard  to  its 
claims.  Nor  is  it  surprising,  though  also  to  be  regretted,  that 
amidst  their  manifold  engagements  they  should  have  failed  to 
present  in  their  writings  a  full  exposition  of  sabbatic  doctrine  and 
law,  instead  of  those  unsatisfactory  notices  of  the  subject  which 
an  able  writer  has  thus  described  :  "  There  is  no  regular  and  sys 
tematic  treatise  on  the  Sabbath  in  the  works  of  the  more  eminent 
divines  of  that  period  ;  it  is  only  incidentally  alluded  to  in  con 
nexion  with  other  points,  such  as  the  power  of  the  Church  in 
decreeing  ceremonies,  or  briefly  discussed  in  their  commentaries 
on  Scripture  ;  or,  finally,  made  the  subject  of  a  few  paragraphs 
under  the  Fourth  Commandment,  in  their  elements  of  Christian 
doctrine.  A  few  minutes  might  suffice  to  read  what  each  one  "of 
the  Reformers  has  left  on  record  concerning  the  permanent  obliga 
tion  of  the  Sabbath ;  indeed,  that  part  of  the  question  is  rather 
summarily  decided  on  than  calmly  and  satisfactorily  examined."  l 
It  is  a  peculiar  responsibility  of  such  men  that  they  exert  a 
powerful  and  far-reaching  influence.  Scotland's  Reformers  did 
early  justice  to  the  Lord's  Day,  and  so,  notwithstanding  some 
unrighteous  and  violent  attempts  from  without  to  wrest  it  from 
her,  she  still  retains,  bedirnmed  though  it  is,  her  sabbatic  crown. 
The  countries  of  the  Reformation  abroad  felt  for  a  time  the  im 
pulse  of  the  doctrines  taught,  and  of  the  example  set,  by  Zuing- 
lius,  Luther,  and  Calvin  ;  but  as  Christianity  and  its  weekly  holy 
day,  which  are  mutually  conservative  and  stimulating,  were  not 
fully  adjusted  to  each  other,  nor  consequently  brought  to  act  with 
concentrated  power  on  the  people,  the  decay  of  both  ensued  ;  and 
though  a  war  on  the  Sabbath  question  (from  which  Scotland  was 
happily  free)  kindled  by  a  spark  from  this  country,  prevailed  for 
a  century  in  Holland,  and  extended  to  parts  of  Germany,  yet  as 

1  Fairbairn's  Typology,  vol.  ii.  p.  462. 
C 


34         SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

it  ended  in  what  Hengstenberg  calls  "the  gradual  advance  of 
more  liberal  views,"  that  is,  such  views  as  have  left  these  coun 
tries  well-nigh  without  a  religion  at  all,  another  must  yet  be  waged 
over  the  entire  continent  of  Europe.  The  Reformation  in  Eng 
land  was  not  so  thorough  as  in  some  countries,  but  the  spirit  of 
its  people  was  too  ardent  to  let  a  great  question  be  compromised 
and  slumber,  as  occurred  in  so  many  Protestant  States.  Hence  to 
that  country  accrued  the  glory,  as  respected  one  party — the  discredit 
as  regarded  another,  of  being  the  scene  of  the  earliest  conflict  within 
the  Christian  Church  on  subjects  affecting  the  Divine  authority,  the 
sacred  character,  and  thus  the  very  existence  of  one  of  the  noblest, 
most  indispensable,  and  most  beneficent  institutions  of  Heaven. 

When  the  claims  of  the  Lord's  Day  are  advocated  on  the 
ground  that  the  doctrine  of  its  Divine  authority  was  held  by  the 
Church  down  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  prove  that  the  institution  was  never  misrepresented  or  mis 
applied.  It  is  enough  to  the  argument  that  the  doctrine  was 
received  by  the  universal  Church,  although  she  chose  to  add  holi 
days,  superstitious  rites,  and  one  of  six  "ecclesiastical  precepts 
to  the  simple  ordinance  of  Heaven.  Nor  is  this  argument, 
founded  as  it  is  on  the  harmony  of  many  centuries,  destroyed  by 
the  fact  that  sabbatic  unanimity  was  disturbed  at  the  Reforma 
tion,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  the  ordinance  was  the  cause  of 
the  disturbance.  That  peaceful  ordinance,  however,  was  guiltless. 
The  Reformers  were  not  aggrieved  at  the  celebration  of  the 
weekly  holy  day.  This  formed  no  reason  of  their  protest  against 
Rome,  or  of  their  secession  from  her  pale.  It  was  her  own  inter 
minable  contrivances  that  at  last  rent  the  Church  ;  and  it  was 
this,  her  will-worship,  imitated  naturally  enough  by  one  class,  but 
rejected  by  another,  which  largely  contributed  to  alienate  from 
each  other  the  friends  of  the  Reformation.  Rome,  ever  boasting 
of  her  concord,  has  least  exemplified  it  in  her  own  community,  and 
has  been  the  chief  cause  of  the  divisions  and  distractions  in  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  society  around  her  ; — and  thus  new  evidence  has 
been  added  to  the  old,  in  proof  of  the  Divine  power  of  an  insti 
tute  which  has  continued  to  exist  among  Protestant  sects  and  con 
troversies,  not  less  than  it  was,  and  still  is,  preserved  amidst  all  the 
corruptions  of  the  Papacy. 


ENGLAND.  35 

Although  nothing  entitled  to  the  name  of  a  general  or  pro 
longed  contest  on  our  subject,  except  in  so  far  as  it  was  indirectly 
concerned  with  that  on  holidays,  was  the  immediate  result  of  the 
Reformation,  yet  there  wanted  not  indications,  then  and  afterwards, 
that  diversified,  and  in  some  instances  confused  notions  of  the  in 
stitution  were  entertained,  arising  from  the  system  with  which  it 
had  been  mixed  up,  and  showing  that  an  open  collision  was,  in  the 
case  of  England  at  least,  at  hand.  Luther,  in  his  zeal  against  the 
profane  and  mischievous  perversions  of  Divine  commandments  and 
ordinances  in  the  Church  of  Eome,  laid  himself  open,  by  strong 
expressions  respecting  the  Mosaic  Law  and  the  Sabbath,  to  the 
charge  preferred  against  him  by  John  Agricola,  of  affirming  the 
abrogation  of  the  Decalogue — a  charge  which  he  vehemently 
denied,  and  obliged  his  accuser  to  retract,  though  only  to  be  re 
newed.1  Cardinal  Tolet  maintained,  "  that  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  Day  is  not  a  law  of  God,  but  an  ecclesiastical  pre 
cept,  and  a  custom  of  the  faithful."2  The  position  was  substan 
tially  asserted  by  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  Dialogues,  where  he 
avowed  that  the  first  day  came  in  place  of  the  seventh  by  virtue 
of  tradition,  and  that  the  observance  of  the  Sunday  rested  on  the 
commandment  of  the  Church, — "  The  Sundays  hear  thou  mass." 
It  is  not  for  us  to  attempt  harmonizing  the  views  of  such  men 
with  the  doctrine  taught  in  their  Church  throughout  her  history 
even  to  the  present  day — that  the  apostles  changed  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  into  the  Lord's  Day,  and  that  the  duties  of  the  latter  are 
prescribed  in  the  Decalogue.  In  his  Answer  to  Sir  Thomas  More 
(1530),  William  Tyndale  wrote  slightingly  of  those  circumstances 
of  time  to  whichr  the  Church  attached  so  superstitious  and  fatal 
an  importance ;  and,  as  extremes  meet,  seemed  to  claim  for  the 
Christian  people  a  right  to  alter  the  stated  day  of  worship,  no 
less  unwarranted  than  that  assumed  by  his  opponent  for  the 
hierarchy  in  its  appointment.  "  We  be  lords,"  he  says,  "  over 
the  Sabbath,  and  may  yet  change  it  into  the  Monday,  or  any 
other  day,  as  we  see  need  ;  or  may  make  every  tenth  day  holy  day 
only,  if  we  see  a  cause  why ;  we  may  make  two  every  week  if  it 
were  expedient,  and  one  not  enough  to  teach. the  people.  Neither 

1  Rutherford's  Survey  of  the  Spiritual  Antichrist,  pp.  68-80. 

2  Toleti  Insti.  Sactrdot.  lib.  iv.  c.  13. 


36  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

was  there  any  cause  to  change  it  from  the  Saturday,  but  to  put 
difference  between  us  and  the  Jews,  and  lest  we  should  become 
servants  unto  the  day  after  their  superstition.  Neither  needed  we 
any  holy  day  at  all,  if  the  people  might  be  taught  without  it."1 
Tyndale,  having  finished  his  education  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
conceived  the  purpose  of  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the  Eng 
lish  language,  but  finding  it  impossible  to  accomplish  this  in  his 
native  country,  proceeded  to  the  Continent,  where  he  had  com 
pleted  a  version  of  the  New  Testament  with  portions  of  the  old, 
and  had  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  many  editions  of  the  former 
printed  and  circulated,  when  he  fell  a  victim  to  assassination  in 
1536,  offering  up  with  his  last  breath,  the  prayer,  "Lord,  open 
the  eyes  of  the  king  of  England  !"  Although  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  had  personal  intercourse  with  Luther,  his  residence  on  the 
Continent  had  led  him  to  adopt,  in  reference  to  the  Sabbath,  the 
same  strange  phraseology,  which  appears,  however,  in  both  cases, 
to  have  been  compatible  with  substantially  sound  views,  and  re 
verent  observance  of  the  institution.  '•  When  the  Sunday  came," 
says  John  Fox,  "  then  went  he  to  some  one  merchant's  chamber 
or  other  (in  Antwerp),  whither  came  many  other  merchants,  and 
unto  them  would  he  read  some  one  parcel  of  Scripture  ;  the  which 
proceeded  so  fruitfully,  sweetly,  and  gently  from  him,  much  like 
to  the  writing  of  John  the  Evangelist,  that  it  was  a  heavenly  com 
fort  and  joy  to  the  audience  to  hear  him  read  the  Scriptures  ;  like 
wise  after  dinner  he  spent  an  hour  in  the  same  manner."2  Frith, 
his  convert  and  friend,  who  suffered  martyrdom  for  the  Protestant 
faith  in  1533,  had  in  the  year  of  his  death  written  his  Treatise 
on  JSaptism — in  which,  touching  on  the  Sabbath*  he  follows  Tyn- 
dale's  train  of  thought,  and  asserts  the  same  liberty  for  Christians 
to  choose  a  day  of  worship,  but  with  this  difference,  that  the  right 
was  in  the  hands  of  "  the  forefathers,"  or  apostles,  and  that 
"  though  -they  might  have  kept  Saturday  with  the  Jews  as  a 
thing  indifferent,  yet  they  did  much  better." 

Without  dwelling  on  the  statement  of  the  Convocation  in 
1536 — "That  sith  the  Sabbath-day  was  ordained  for  man's 
use,  and  therefore  ought  to  give  way  to  the  necessity  and  be- 

1  Works  (1831)  vol.  ii.  p.  101. 

*  Anderson's  AnnaU  of  the  English  Btt>let  vol.  i.  p.  52L 


ENGLAND.  57 

hoof  of  the  same,"  "  much  rather  any  other  holiday  instituted 
by  man,"1 — we  come  to  a  declaration  of  sabbatic  opinion, 
which,  like  that  of  the  Convocation,  has  the  advantage  of  coming 
from  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  English  Church  at  the 
time.  It  is  contained  in  The  Godly  and  Pious  Institution  of  a 
Christian,  which  appeared  in  1537,  with  the  signatures  of  Arch 
bishop  Cranmer  and  Bishop  Latimer,  Protestants  ;  and  of  Bishops 
Stokesley,  Tonstall,  Gardiner,  Archdeacons  Bonner  and  Heath — 
all,  except  in  the  matter  of  the  Pope's  supremacy,  Romanists  ; 
and,  substantially  repeated  in  the  editions  of  1540  and  of  1543, 
the  latter  bearing  the  new  title — A  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Eru 
dition  for  any  Christian  Man,  states  that  "  the  fourth  command 
ment  is  distinguished  from  the  other  nine — the  latter  being 
merely  moral,  the  former  ceremonial  as  regards  <  rest  from  bodily 
labour  the  seventh  day,'  which  belonged  only  to  the  Jews,  but 
moral  as  respects  the  spiritual  rest  from  sin,  which  binds  Christians 
at  all  times — the  command,  however,  binding  also  to  rest  from  all 
bodily  labour,  and  to  the  exclusive  service  of  God  at  certain  times 
— not  as  formerly  on  the  Saturday,  instead  of  which  succeedeth 
the  Sunday,  and  many  other  holy  and  feastful  clays,  ordained  from 
time  to  time  by  the  Church  and  called  holy  days,  not  because  one 
day  is  more  acceptable  to  God  than  another,  but  because  the 
Church  hath  ordained  that  on  these  days  we  give  ourselves  wholly 
to  holy  works  without  impediment."  Directions  follow  to  the 
bishops  and  clergy  to  teach  the  people  not  to  be  over-scrupu 
lous  in  time  of  necessity  in  abstaining  from  labour  on  the  holy 
day,  and  that  idleness,  gluttony,  or  other  vain  and  idle  pastimes 
on  that  day,  do  not  please  God,  but  offend  Him. 

There  appeared  in  1545,  The  Primer  ;  or  Book  of  Prayws, 
containing  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments, 
etc., — "  where,"  to  borrow  the  remarkable  statement  of  another, 
"  the  general  confession,  enumerating  the  violation  of  each  of  the 
commandments,  on  the  fourth  says,  '  I  have  not  sanctified  the 
holy  days  with  works  which  be  acceptable  unto  thee,  nor  instruct 
ing  my  neighbour  in  virtue  accordingly  ; '  when  we  turn  to  the 
Decalogue,  we  find,  in  strict  conformity  with  this  notion,  nothing 
more  of  the  fourth  commandment  than  these  words  only — '  Re- 

»  Wilk.  Conoil.  iil.  827. 

3 


38  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTKOVEBSIES. 

member  that  thou  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day.'  This  lopping  off 
all  mention  of  the  six  days'  creation,  and  of  the  hallowed  rest  on 
the  seventh,  in  order  to  make  the  commandment  square  with 
the  Eomish  doctrine,  might  have  been  a  hint  to  Cranmer,  that 
his  opinions  on  this  head  were  not  yet  those  we  are  taught  in  the 
Ten  Commandments  of  Almighty  God."  1 

Cranmer's  Catechism  (1548)  states,  that  Christians  are  freed 
from  the  Mosaic  law  as  regards  differences  of  times  and  meats — 
that  they  have  the  liberty  of  using  other  sacred  days  than  the 
Jewish — that  to  maintain  this  liberty  they  observe  not  Saturday 
but  Sunday,  and  certain  other  days,  as  the  magistrates,  whom  in 
this  thing  they  ought  to  obey,  judge  it  convenient — that  they 
must  employ  and  bestow  the  Sabbath-day  upon  godly  works  and 
business — and  that  to  spend  the  holy  days  in  the  neglect  of  such 
works,  or  "  in  idleness,  banqueting,  dancing,"  etc.,  is  "  a  great 
sin,"  "  for  which  God  pumsheth  us  with  divers  kinds  of  plagues, 
but  specially  with  need  and  poverty."  2 

It  appears  from  the  preceding  extracts,  that,  while  the  Koman- 
ists  were  disposed  to  support  their  practical  abuse  of  the  Lord's 
Day  by  corrupting  its  doctrine,  the  Reformers,  as  religious  earnest 
men,  would  have  the  institution  applied  to  pious  and  practical 
use,  but  knew  not  how  to  carry  out,  or  did  not  clearly  apprehend, 
the  only  theory  by  which  their  object  could  be  fully  gained — the 
theory,  we  mean,  of  a  Sabbath,  moral,  perpetual,  and  admitting 
of  no  competitor.  It  was  reserved  for  Bishop  Hooper  to  make 
the  nearest  approach  to  this  theory  that  had  been  made  since  the 
time  of  Wycliffe.  In  his  Exposition  of  the  Ten  Commandments, 
published  in  1550,  he  not  only  advocates,  with  Cranmer,  absti 
nence  from  ordinary  labour,  and  from  pastimes,  on  the  Lord's 
Day,  but,  though  admitting  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  as  regarded  its 
specific  day  of  the  week,  to  have  been  ceremonial,  "  during  for 
the  time,"  holds  that  the  fourth  commandment  is  no  more  cere 
monial  than  the  second,  "  all  the  commandments  being  of  one 
virtue  and  strength." 

1  James'  Four  Sermons  on  the  Christian  Sacraments  and  SaVbath,  p.  228. 

2  The  original  work,  written  in  German  "for  the  use  of  the  younger  sort"  in 
Nuremberg,  was,  in  1539,  translated  by  Justus  Jonas,  junior,  into  Latin,  from  w  M*h 
It  vrta  rendered  into  English  by  the  archbishop,  Jonas  being  at  the  time  his  guest 


ENGLAND.  39 

These  views,  which  were  not  new  but  very  old,  cannot  reason 
ably  be  conceived  to  kave  been  then  peculiar  to  Hooper.  But 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  writings  of  so  learned  and  good  a  man 
would,  with  his  preaching,  exercise  a  powerful  influence  on  sab 
batic  opinion  in  his  lifetime,  and  that  this  would  receive  fresh 
energy  from  his  heroic  death  in  the  cause  of  the  doctrines  and 
institutions  of  Christ.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this  sup 
position,  certain  it  is,  that  so  early  after  the  appearance  of  his 
treatise  as  1551,  when  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  con 
firmed  by  Parliament,  though  the  Preamble  of  the  Act  rang  the 
old  changes  on  holidays,  the  commandments  were  for  the  first 
time  added  to  the  Liturgy,  the  fourth,  "  Remember  that  thou 
keep  holy  the  Sabbath-day,"  etc.,  being,  as  well  as  the  others, 
succeeded  by  the  prayer,  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  in 
cline  our  hearts  to  keep  this  law  ;"  and  that  in  Cranmer's  Forty- 
two  Articles,  agreed  to  at  a  convocation  of  bishops  and  learned 
men  in  1552,  are  to  be  found  the  following  positions  of  vital 
importance  to  our  subject,  and  expressed  in  singularly  clear  and 
decided  terms  : — First,  the  exclusive  competency  of  the  Scrip 
tures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  the  establishment  of 
any  doctrine  ;  and,  Second,  the  threefold  distinction  in  the  law 
given  from  God  by  Moses,  which  as  touching  ceremonies  does 
not  bind  Christian  men,  as  respects  civil  precepts  ought  not  of 
necessity  to  be  received  in  any  commonwealth,  and  as  moral  con 
sists  of  commandments  from  the  obligation  of  which  no  Christian 
man  whatsoever  is  free. 

A  blank  in  sabbatic  discussion  and  literature  of  fully  five 
years  (1553-58)  is  accounted  for  by  the  reign  of  Mary  and 
Popery,  under  which  Coverdale,  Jewell,  Becon,  Fox,  with  many 
more,  were  obliged  to  quit  their  country,  and  Rogers,  Hooper, 
Bradford,  Ridley,  Latimer,  Cranmer,  and  others,  were  committed 
to  the  flames.  But'  good  resulted.  The  blood  of  the  martyrs 
was  the  life  of  their  creed,  and  the  exiles  returned,  after  the  death 
of  Queen  Mary,  only  the  more  qualified  to  take  part  in  the  reco 
very  and  advancement  of  the  Reformation.  To  the  impression  of 
those  martyrdoms,  and  to  the  efforts  of  the  men  whose  characters 
had  been  matured  by  their  residence  abroad,  England  in  no  small 
measure  owed  her  free  Bible,  her  improved  Articles  and  Homilies, 


40  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

her  Augustan  age  of  learning,  and  her  Puritans,  with  the  liberty, 
virtue,  enterprise,  and  prosperity,  which  were  the  fruits  of  the 
principles,  labours,  and  sufferings  of  these  oppressed  but  noble 
men.  To  the  same  means  was  she  indebted  for  not  the  least  of 
her  privileges — a  Sabbath  doctrinally  recognised  as  an  institution 
of  perpetual  obligation,  having  its  changed  day  divinely  appointed, 
as  well  as  its  Christian  observance  ruled  by  the  fourth  com 
mandment  ;  and  which,  but  for  her  own  princes  and  prelates, 
would,  through  the  removal  of  useless  and  pernicious  devices  from 
Divine  worship,  have  reached  a  closer  conformity  to  the  Word  of 
God.  Queen  Elizabeth  had  not  been  above  four  years  seated  on 
the  throne  when,  at  her  desire,  the  Convocation  of  1562  was 
assembled  for  the  settlement  of  doctrine  in  the  Church.  The 
publication  of  thirty-eight  Articles,  and  of  the  Second  Book  of 
Homilies,  now  appended  to  the  First,  as  all  agreed  to  by  that 
body,  was  one  of  the  chief  results.  These  documents,  supple 
mented  with  a  thirty-ninth  Article,  and  otherwise  slightly  changed, 
were  approved  by  the  Convocation  of  1571,  and  in  the  same 
year  confirmed  by  the  Queen  and  Parliament,  as  constituting, 
with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  formularies  of  Doctrine 
and  Worship  in  the  Church  of  England.  As  such,  with  one 
important  and  several  minor  alterations  subsequently  made,  they 
have  been  recognised  by  her  members  down  to  the  present 
day. l 

When  we  examine  these  documents,  we  find  the  following  to 
be  their  doctrine  respecting  the  Sabbath  : — That  while  we  ought 
always  and  everywhere  gratefully  to  remember  our  beneficent 
Creator,  it  appears  to  be  His  good-will  and  pleasure  that  there 
should  be  special  times  and  places  for  His  worship  and  glory — - 
that  the  appointed  solemn  time  is  ascertained  from  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  arid  is  a  standing  day  in  tho  week — that  this 
commandment  does  not  require  of  us,  as  of  the  Jews,  abstinence 

i  The  important  alteration  referred  to  was  thn  introduction  into  the  Twentieth 
Article  of  the  words, — "  The  Church  hath  power  to  decree  rites  or  ceremonies,  and 
authority  in  controversies  of  faith."  As  this,  or  any  similar  clause,  had  no  place  in 
the  Forty-two  Articles  of  Edward  vi.,  none  in  the  subscribed  MS.  Articles  of  1562 
and  1571,  and  none  in  any  such  book — "  an  imprinted  English  book  " — as  was  alone 
confirmed  by  this  Act  of  Parliament,  it  follows  that  the  Church  did  not  in  her  Article* 
of  either  of  those  year*  claim  the  power  which  the  clause  arrogates  for  her. 


ENGLAND.  41 

from  ordinary  labour  in  time  of  great  necessity,  or  the  observance 
of  the  seventh  day — that  Christians  keep  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  and  make  that  their  Sabbath,  or  day  of  rest,  in  honour  of 
Christ,  who  upon  that  day  rose  from,  and  conquered,  death — that 
God  hath  given  express  charge  by  this  commandment  as  a  thing 
belonging  to  the  law  of  nature,  and  therefore  as  most  godly,  just, 
and  good,  to  be  retained  and  kept  of  all  good  Christian  people, 
that  all  men  shall,  upon  the  Sabbath-day,  which  is  now  our  Sun 
day,  cease  from  all  weekly  and  work-day  labour  in  which  they 
ought  to  be  employed  during  the  six  days,  and  give  themselves 
wholly  to  heavenly  exercises  of  God's  true  religion  and  service, 
even  as  God  wrought  six  days  and  rested  the  seventh,  and  blessed 
and  sanctified  it,  and  consecrated  it  to  quietness  and  rest  from 
labour — that  this  example  and  commandment  of  God  the  godly 
Christian  people  began  to  follow  immediately  after  the  ascension 
of  our  Lord,  and  to  choose  for  their  standing  day  of  worship  in  the 
week,  the  Lord's  Day,  the  day  after  the  seventh,  of  which  men 
tion  is  made  in  1  Cor.  xvi.  and  Apoc.  i. — that  since  that  time  the 
day  has  been  observed  without  gainsaying  in  the  Church — that 
notwithstanding  the  warning  against  the  breach  of  it  given  in  the 
stoning  to  death  of  the  man  who  gathered  sticks  on  the  Sabbath- 
day,  there  are  still  those  that  would  be  counted  God's  people  who 
devote  the  Sunday  to  travelling  and  business  without  extreme 
need,  or  to  what  is  worse,  gluttony,  drunkenness,  quarrelling  and 
fighting,  excess  and  superfluity,  toyish  talking,  and  fleshly  filthi- 
ness,  so  that  God  is  more  dishonoured,  and  the  Devil  better  served 
on  that  day  than  upon  all  the  days  of  the  week  besides  ;  and  that 
if  men  will  be  negligent,  and  not  forbear  to  labour  and  travel  on 
the  Sabbath-day,  or  Sunday,  and  do  not  resort  together  to  mag 
nify  His  name  in  quiet  holiness  arid  godly  reverence,  they  have 
reason  to  fear  the  displeasure  and  just  plagues  of  Almighty 
God.1  To  this  analysis  of  what  is  contained  in  the  Homilies 
on  the  subject,  let  us  add  an  extract  from  the  Boole  of  Common 
Prayer  :  "  Minister. — Remember  that  thou  keep  holy  the  Sab 
bath-day.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  that  thou 
hast  to  do,  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thv 
God.  In  it  thou  shalt  do  no  manner  of  work,  etc.  People.. 

1  Homily  of  the  Ptooe  and  Time  of  Prayer.     Hnmtii's,  edit.  L<  inlon,  1fiS7. 


42  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

— Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  incline  our  hearts  to  keep  this 
law."1 

Such  was  in  1562  and  1571,  and  such  is  at  this  day  the  sab 
batic  creed  of  the  English  Church.  As  prior  to  1562,  no  seces 
sion  from  her  pale  beyond  that  of  an  individual  or  two  had  taken 
place,  the  Church  may  be  said  to  have  then  comprised  nearly  the 
entire  population  of  the  country  ;  and  as  her  creed  was  to  exert 
no  slight  influence  on  the  existing  as  well  as  many  future  genera 
tions,  it  was  certainly  of  great  moment  that  it  should  be  accordant 
with  Scripture.  Of  the  one  adopted  different  opinions  have  been 
entertained.  Many,  including  persons  of  her  own  communion, 
have  shown  by  their  writings  or  practice  that  they  have  regarded 
it  as  rigid  and  unscriptural.  Others,  deploring  its  alliance  with 
a  hierarchy  and  ritual  viewed  by  them  as  foreign  from  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  gospel,  may  also  take  exception  to  some  of  its 
statements  as  incorrect  or  defective.  The  holidays  of  human 
appointment,  for  example,  with  which  it  is  bound  up,  and  which 
of  course  it  does  not  condemn,  are  justly  held  to  be  a  grievous 
wrong  and  bane  to  the  Christian  Sabbath.  But  surely  it  is  a 
matter  of  well-founded  congratulation  that  the  Church  of  England 
has  since  1562  distinctly  recognised  the  Decalogue  as  a  law  of 
permanent  authority,  and  as  giving  in  its  fourth  precept  a  Divine 
and  express  charge  to  all  men,  that  upon  the  Sabbath-day,  which 
is  now  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  observed  in  honour  of  Christ 
and  His  conquest  of  death,  they  should,  excepting  in  cases  of 
necessity,  rest  from  the  common  labour  required  of  them  on  the 
other  days  of  the  week,  and  apply  themselves  wholly  to  heavenly 
exercises,  as  they  would  avoid  the  displeasure  and  just  plagues  of 
the  Almighty,  and  "  declare  themselves  to  be  his  loving  children 
in  following  the  example  of  our  gracious  Lord  and  Father."  And 
it  is  as  gratifying  as  it  is  surprising,  that  a  Convocation,  almost 
equally  divided  on  the  proposal  made  to  it  of  rejecting  most  of 
the  old  ceremonies,  and  actually  debating  the  question,  Whether 
they  should  conform  in  outward  appearances  as  closely  as  possible 

1  Order  of  fJie  A  dminwtration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Partly  as  it  was  a  min  or  authority, 
and  partly  as  it  expresses  itself  only  less  fully  than  the  Homilies,  on  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment,  we  have  not  cited  Noell's  Catichinr,,  which  was  approved  by  the  Convoca 
tion,  as  was  also  Jewell's  Apology. 


ENGLAND.  43 

to  Popish  practice,  should  harmonize  in  a  verdict  respecting  the 
weekly  clay  of  worship  and  rest  containing  so  much  precious  truth. 
Jewell  is  supposed  to  have  been  engaged  with  Parker  in  complet 
ing  the  Second  Book  of  Homilies.  At  all  events,  that  learned 
man,  so  desirous,  some  years  before,  that  every  vestige  of  Popery, 
"  the  relics  of  the  Amorites,"  were  removed,  but  soon  to  be  a 
strict  enforcer  of  subscription  ;  and  the  hardly  less  learned  Samp 
son,  who  would  submit  to  no  human  impositions  ;  appear  to  have 
concurred  with  the  Archbishop  and  his  courtly  friends,  in  approv 
ing  the  homily  on  "  The  place  and  time  of  prayer."  The  Queen, 
"  the  Governor  of  the  Church,"  who  was  said,  Argus-like,  to  have 
an  eye  on  everything,  centum  luminibus  cinctum  caput,  and  who 
conceived  that  the  reading  of  the  Homilies  might  supersede  every 
other  means  of  public  religious  instruction,  may  be  presumed  to 
have  read  what  she  sanctioned.  And  neither  those  Nonconfor 
mists  who  separated  from  the  Church  in  1566,  nor  the  Roman 
Catholics  who  followed  their  example  in  1569,  seem  to  have 
offered  any  protest  against  her  sabbatical  doctrine,  or  to  have 
withdrawn  on  its  account. 

The  decision  thus  harmoniously  passed  was  not  without  an  in 
fluence  for  good.  It  proved  somewhat  of  a  shield  to  the  friends 
of  the  Lord's  Day  in  their  efforts  on  its  behalf,  and  doubtless 
contributed  materially  to  the  fact,  that  the  Church  of  England 
has  from  that  time  ever  numbered  amongst  its  members  many 
enlightened  defenders  and  conscientious  observers  of  an  entire 
weekly  day  of  sacred  rest.  But  its  beneficial  operation  was 
lamentably  counteracted  by  the  intolerant  principles  and  proceed 
ings  of  many  of  those  who  were  concerned  in  its  adoption.  This 
they  accomplished  not  chiefly  by  direct  attacks  on  the  institution, 
although  Whitgift,  writing  under  the  direction  of  Parker,  claimed 
for  the  Church  a  power  by  virtue  of  which  she  had  appointed  the 
first  day  of  the  week  to  be  the  Christian  Sabbath,1  and  the  Queen 

i  "  The  Scripture  hath  not  appointed  what  day  in  the  week  should  be  most  meet  for 
the  Sabbath-day,  whether  Saturday,  which  is  the  Jews'  Sabbath,  or  the  day  now  ob 
served,  which  was  appointed  by  the  Church. "  Cartwright,  in  replying  to  Whitgif t's 
work,  waives  the  point,  "  as  not  wishing  to  raise  up  other  questions  than  those  in 
hand,"  only  saying,  "There  was  no  great  judgment  to  make  the  Lord's  Day  as  arbi 
trary  and  changeable  as  the  hour  and  place  of  prayer." — Whitgift's  Works,  vol.  i.  pp. 
SOO,  201. 


44  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

asserted  an  arbitrary  right  sometimes  to  stifle  bills  brought  by 
the  bishops  into  Parliament  in  favour  of  Sabbath  observance,  and 
anon  to  banish  profane  players,  and  raze  theatres  and  gambling- 
houses  to  the  ground.  It  was  mainly  by  other  means  that  the 
injury  was  inflicted. 

There  is  nothing  by  which  the  sabbatic  institution,  in  regard 
to  both  its  theory  and  its  practice,  is  more  favourably  or  unfavour 
ably  affected  than  the  manner  in  which  its  relative  ordinances  are 
treated.  In  the  commencement  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  persons  of 
the  greatest  learning  and  piety  were  precluded  by  the  compliances 
requisite  to  the  exercise  of  the  ministry,  from  accepting  charges, 
which  were  in  consequence  supplied  by  mechanics,  fend  other 
equally  uneducated  and  unscrupulous  men.  Thousands  of  the 
former  class,  who  had  either  got  over  their  difficulties  to  some 
extent,  or  been  tolerated  by  such  prelates  as  Grindal,  were  after 
wards  suspended,  and  punished  as  felons.  In  1559,  the  Bishop 
of  Bangor  wrote,  that  "  he  had  only  two  preachers  in  all  his  dio 
cese."1  There  were  in  1583  only  2000  preachers  to  serve  10,000 
parishes.2  At  this  latter  period  the  inferior  clergy  of  England 
were  very  generally  not  only  ignorant  and  unable  to  preach,  but 
men  of  profane  and  profligate  characters.  In  a  petition  to  Par 
liament  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  of  Cornwall  in  1579, 
it  is  said,  "  We  have  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  churches,  the 
greatest  part  of  which  are  supplied  by  men  who  are  guilty  of  the 
grossest  sins  ;  some  fornicators,  some  adulterers,  some  felons, 
bearing  the  marks  in  their  hands  for  the  said  offence,  some 
drunkards,  gamesters  on  the  Sabbath-day,  etc.  We  have  many 
non-residents  who  preach  but  once  a  quarter."3  "  The  conform 
able  clergy,"  it  has  been  affirmed,  "obtained  all  the  benefices  in 
their  power,  and  resided  upon  none,  utterly  neglecting  their  cures  ; 
many  of  them  alienated  the  Church  lands,  made  unreasonable 
leases,  wasted  the  wood  upon  the  lands,  and  granted  reversions  and 
advowsons  for  their  own  advantage.  The  churches  fell  greatly 
into  decay,  and  became  unfit  for  Divine  service.  Among  the 
laity  there  was  little  devotion  ;  and  the  Lord's  Day  was  generally 
profaned.  Many  were  mere  heathens,  epicures,  or  atheists,  espe- 

»  Brook's  Puritans,  rol.  i  p.  21.  *  Ibid.  p.  49.  s  Ibid.  p.  4L 


ENGLAND.  45 

daily  those  about  the  Court  ;  and  good  men  feared  that  some  sore 
judgment  hung  over  the  nation."1 

That  the  general  profanation  of  the  Lord's  Day  should  be  one 
of  many  evils  attendant  on  such  a  scarcity  and  abuse  of  the  other 
Christian  institutions,  was  a  necessary  result.  For  as  an  author 
of  that  time  observes  :  "  Wheresoever  the  preaching  of  the  Word 
is  not,  or  where  men  have  it,  and  come  not  to  it,  there  can  they 
not  sanctify  the  day  in  that  manner  that  they  should  ;  because 
they  want  the  principal  part  of  God's  service,  and  that  which 
should  direct  them  in  all  the  rest,  and  make  these  most  profitable 
unto  them.  ...  And  if  this  be  the  state  of  the  poor  people,  .... 
what  can  be  said  or  thought  sufficiently  and  answerably  unto  the 
gin  of  them  who,  being  called  the  ministers  of  God,  as  they  that 
should  be  chief  in  his  service,  and  go  before  others  in  it,  by  preach 
ing  unto  them,  are  able  and  willing  to  do  nothing  less  in  the 
world  than  that  1  For  partly  they  are  ignorant  and  cannot  do 
it  ;  partly,  they  are  given  to  ease,  and  will  not  do  it  ;  and  partly, 
they  have  so  many  charges  to  look  unto,  that  they  know  not  where 
to  begin  to  do  it.  And  so  do  not  only  unhallow  every  Sabbath- 
day  that  they  live,  and  do  bestow  no  day  in  the  week  so  ill  as 
that  which  they  should  bestow  best  of  all,  because  they  neglect 
that  which  God  requireth  most  of  all  at  their  hands  ;  but  also  are 
the  only  chief  causes  everywhere  of  unhallowing  the  Sabbath,  and 
do  compel  the  people  to  break  it  whether  they  will  or  no."2 
Accordingly,  in  city  and  country,  this  species  of  profaneness 
abounded.  In  a  petition  from  the  city  of  London  to  Parliament 
in  1579,  it  is  said  :  "  There  are  in  this  city  a  great  number  of 
churches,  but  the  one-half  of  them  at  the  least  are  utterly  unfur 
nished  of  preaching  ministers  ;  ....  (as  to)  the  other  half,  partly 
by  means  of  non-residents,  which  are  very  many,  and  partly 
through  the  poverty  of  many  meanly  qualified,  there  is  scarcely 
the  tenth  man  that  makes  conscience  to  wait  upon  his  charge, 
whereby  the  Lord's  Sabbath  is  often  wholly  neglected  or  miser 
ably  mangled,  ignorance  increaseth,  and  wickedness  comes  upon 
us  like  an  armed  man.  Therefore,  we  humbly  on  our  knees  be 
seech  this  honourable  assembly,  in  the  bowels  and  blood  of  Jesus 

1  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  i.  p.  84  ;  Strype's  Parker,  p.  305. 
»  Bownd's  Sab.  Vet.  et  Nov.  Test.  (1606),  pp.  328,  339. 
3* 


46  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Christ,  to  become  humble  suitors  to  her  Majesty,  that  we  may 
have  guides,  that  the  bread  of  life  may  be  brought  home  to  us, 
that  the  pipes  of  water  may  be  brought  into  our  assemblies,  that 
there  may  be  food  and  refreshing  for  us,  our  poor  wives,  and  for 
lorn  children."1  We  have  discovered  no  proof  that  this  heart 
rending  appeal  met  with  any  success  or  even  attention.  The 
Queen  could  not,  indeed,  grant  the  petition  consistently  with  her 
procedure  only  two  years  before,  and  with  her  cherished  principles 
on  that  occasion  expressed.  "When  in  1577  she  sent  for  Archbishop 
Grindal,  and  commanded  him  to  put  down  the  exercises  or  pro- 
phesyings,  which  he  had  been  careful  so  to  regulate  as  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  any  reasonable  objection  to  them,  she  told  him 
that  "  it  was  good  for  the  Church  to  have  but  few  preachers, 
three  or  four  in  a  county  being  sufficient."  Curates,  though  in 
capable  of  preaching,  might,  in  her  view,  adequately  discharge 
their  duty  by  simply  reading  the  Homilies.  In  vain  did  the 
archbishop  remonstrate  with  her  in  "  a  long  and  earnest  letter," 
in  which  he  declared  that  the  Homilies,  originally  intended  only 
to  supply  the  lack  of  preachers,  were,  by  the  statute  of  Edward  vi., 
to  give  place  to  sermons  whensoever  they  might  be  had — that  by 
the  Canons  every  bishop  had  authority  to  appoint  exercises  for 
the  improvement  of  inferior  ministers,  and  that  whereas,  before 
the  exercises  were  commenced  there  were  not  three  able  preachers, 
thirty  were  now  fit  to  preach  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  and  forty  or 
fifty  besides  were  qualified  to  instruct  their  own  cures.  The  only 
result  was,  that  by  an  order  from  the  Star-Chamber,  and  without 
consulting  with  the  bishops  or  any  of  the  clergy,  she  confined  him 
to  his  house,  and  suspended  him  from  his  archiepiscopal  functions 
for  six  months.2  Neal  says,  "  Towards  the  close  of  this  letter, 
his  Grace  declares  himself  willing  to  resign  his  bishopric,  if  it 
should  be  her  Majesty's  pleasure,  and  then  makes  these  two  re 
quests  :  1.  That  your  Majesty  would  refer  ecclesiastical  matters 
to  the  bishops  and  divines  of  the  realm,  according  to  the  practice 
of  the  first  Christian  emperors  ;  and  2.  That  when  your  Majesty 
deals  in  matters  of  faith  and  religion,  you  would  not  pronounce 
so  peremptorily  as  you  may  do  in  civil  matters  ;  but  remember 

i  Bownd'sSab.  Vet.  et  Nov.  Test.  (1606;,  p.  41. 

»  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans  (1732),  vol.  i.  pp.  352-58. 


ENGLAND.  47 

that  in  God's  cause,  his  will,  and  not  the  will  of  any  earthly 
creature,  is  to  take  place.  'Tis  the  antichristian  voice  of  the 
Pope,  'Sic  volo  sic  jubeo,  stet  pro  ratione  voluntas?  He  then 
puts  her  in  mind,  that  though  she  was  a  great  and  mighty  prin 
cess,  she  was  nevertheless  a  mortal  creature,  and  accountable  to 
God ;  and  concludes  with  saying,  that  he  could  not  without 
offence  of  the  majesty  of  God  send  out  injunctions  for  suppressing 
the  exercises."  The  truth  is,  Elizabeth  could  not  have  favoured 
a  free  and  general  gospel  without  consciously  endangering  that 
arbitrary  power  which  would  "  suffer  no  one  to  decline  either  to 
the  left  or  to  the  right  hand  from  the  drawn  line  limited  by 
authority  and  her  own  laws  and  injunctions,"  and  which  punished 
with  ruinous  fines,  suspension,  and  even  death,  worthy  and  learned 
men  for  declining  to  observe  foolish  and  uuscriptural  practices, 
required  in  some  instances  by  laws  that  were  unconstitutional, 
and  in  others  by  no  law  at  all.  But  had  she  with  enlarged  and 
true  wisdom  desired  to  reign  on  principles  of  justice  alike  to  her 
self  and  to  her  subjects,  she  might  have  rejoiced  in  the  most 
extended  supply  of  the  preached  word,  the  best  of  all  means  for 
securing  stability  to  the  throne,  and  prosperity  to  the  people.  Of 
this  mind  were  the  citizens  of  London  who  thus  continue  their 
address  to  the  Parliament  :  "  So  shall  the  Lord  have  his  due 
honour,  you  shall  discharge  good  duty  to  her  Majesty,  many  lan 
guishing  souls  shall  be  comforted,  atheism  and  heresy  banished, 
her  Majesty  have  more  faithful  subjects,  and  you  have  more  hearty 
prayers  for  your  prosperity  in  this  life,  and  full  happiness  in  the 
life  to  come."  Could  any  petition  have  been  more  respectful  and 
courteous '?  And  yet  the  petitioners  belonged  to  a  class,  who 
because  a  few  of  their  number  were  driven  by  oppression  to  the 
use  of  strong  and  even  unbecoming  language — was  it  wonderful  ? 
— have  as  a  body  been  maligned  as  rude  and  troublesome  men. 
They  were  so  regarded  even  by  the  Queen,  and  most  of  the  pre 
lates,  who,  bound,  the  one  to  be  a  nursing-mother  to  the  Church, 
a  terror  not  to  good  works  but  to  the  evil,  and  the  others,  to  feed 
the  flock  of  God,  not  as  being  lords  over  His  heritage,  but  ensamples 
to  the  flock,  were,  in  reality,  more  active  and  zealous  in  putting 
down  the  instrumentalities  of  good,  than  in  enlightening  ignorance, 
or  rooting  out  profaneness  and  vice. 


48  SKETCHES  OF  SABBA.TIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Contemporary  writers  bear  melancholy  testimony  to  the  preva 
lent  violation  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  in  those  times.  The 
chief  transgessor  was  the  leading  personage  in  the  country,  who 
had  nearly  as  little  veneration  for  the  day«,s  she  had  for  the  name 
of  God.1  Instances  are  indeed  given  of  the  Queen's  presence  at 
public  worship.  Wood  says,  that  Noell,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  "  for 
thirty  years  together  preached  before  her  the  first  and  last  sermons 
in  the  time  of  Lent,  wherein  he  dealt  plainly  and  faithfully  with 
her,  without  dislike."2  This  was  good,  and  it  would  be  well  if, 
instead  of  thanking  one  chaplain  for  his  "  pains  and  piety  "  in 
defending  "  the  real  presence,"  or  ordering  another — Noell  himself, 
if  we  mistake  not — to  desist  from  "  his  ungodly  digression"  against 
"  the  sign  of  the  Cross,"  she  had  sunk  the  Papist  in  the  Christian, 
and  merged  the  monarch  in  the  subject  of  a  higher  Sovereign. 
It  was  well,  too,  that  sometimes  in  her  numerous  "progresses" 
she  rested  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  attended  the  nearest  parish 
church ;  but  it  would  have  been  better  not  to  subject  the  servile 
functionaries  at  Cambridge  to  the  repetition  of  any  part  of  the 
worship  by  her  caprice  and  lateness,  or  to  conclude  the  day  by  coun 
tenancing  the  representation  of  a  play  of  Plautus  in  "  the  King's 
College  Church."  "  Unfortunately,"  as  Miss  Strickland  observes, 
"  her  respect  for  the  Sabbath  was  confined  to  the  act  of  joining 
in  public  worship,  for  the  rest  of  the  day  was  devoted  to  sports 
not  meet  for  any  Christian  lady  to  witness,  much  less  to  provide 
for  the  amusement  of  herself  and  Court ;  but  Elizabeth  shared  in 
the  boisterous  glee  with  which  they  were  greeted  by  the  ruder 
portion  of  the  spectators.  Bear  and  bull  baitings,  tilts,  tourneys, 
and  wrestling,  were  among  the  noon-day  divertissements  of  the 
maiden  Majesty  of  England  ;  dancing,  music,  cards,  and  pageants 
brought  up  the  rear  of  her  Sabbath  amusements.  These  follies 
were  justly  censured  by  the  more  rigid  reformers."3 

i  We  are  informed  that  the  practice  of  profane  swearing,  so  much  a  national  sin 
and  disgrace,  had  in  the  preceding  century  grown  to  be  so  conspicuous,  as  to 
secure  on  the  Continent  for  an  Englishman  a  name  taken  from  one  of  his  own  impre 
cations — that,  by  which  he  desired  for  himself  the  most  fearful  of  all  calamities — 
and  that  the  masculine  daughter  of  the  bluff  Harry  was  particularly  distinguished  in 
her  time  by  the  terrible  vigour  and  roundness  of  her  oaths.  — Eceleston's  Antiquitiu, 
pp.  222,  223,  319. 

8  Athen.  Oxon.  vol.  i.  p.  271. 

•  Lives  oftJtf  Qiuens  of  England  (1848),  vol.  vi.  p.  422. 


ENGLAND.  49 

The  sabbatic  practice  Df  the  ministers  of  religion  was,  for  the 
most  part,  little  better  thin  that  of  their  Sovereign.  Men  of  their 
order  had  been  for  centuries  the  writers  and  actors  of  the  mys 
teries,  miracle-plays,  and  moralities,  or  scenic  representations, 
which,  after  the  model  of  the  Roman  stage,  had  been  introduced 
into  the  service  of  the  Church.  The  original  design  of  these  repre 
sentations  was  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  the  people  the  facts  of 
Scripture,  the  deeds  of  martyrs,  and  the  lessons  of  virtue,  but  the 
performers  in  course  of  time  applied  their  pens  and  histrionic 
powers  to  such  exhibitions  as  the  Feast  of  the  Ass,  and  the  Feast 
of  Fools,  till  places  of  worship  were  turned  into  theatres,  and  the 
clergy  became  common  players.  "  To  what  base  uses  we  may 
return,  Horatio  !"  Cardinal  Wolsey  attempted  to  put  an  end  to 
this  plurality  of  functions,  and  Bishop  Bonner  endeavoured  to 
exclude  common  plays  from  the  churches,  but  in  both  cases  in 
vain.  And  when  it  is  considered  that  of  thousands  of  Popish 
ecclesiastics,  only  two  hundred  and  forty-three  were  honest  enough 
to  quit  their  livings  in  1558,  at  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,1  and 
that  in  1579,  many  of  the  incumbents  of  churches  were  "dis 
guised  Papists,  more  fit  to  sport  with  the  timbrel  and  pipe  than 
to  take  into  their  hands  the  book  of  God,"2  it  does  not  surprise 
us  to  learn  that  in  1572  such  things  were  enacted  as  an  author 
of  that  year,  when  describing  clerical  neglect  of  duty,  thus  por 
trays  :  "  He  posteth  it  (the  service)  over  as  fast  as  he  can  gallop  ; 
for  either  he  hath  two  places  to  serve,  or  else  there  are  some 
games  to  be  played  in  the  afternoon,  as  lying  for  the  whetstone, 
heathenish  dauncing  for  the  ring,  a  beare  or  a  bull  to  be  bayted, 
or  else  jackanapes  to  ride  on  horseback,  or  an  enterlude  to  be 
played  ;  and  if  no  place  else  can  be  gotten,  it  must  be  doone  in 
the  church.  "3 

The  progress  of  society,  however,  brings  a  division  of  labour  ; 
and  these  performers,  satisfied  with  the  pleasures  of  remembered 
exploits,  and  with  the  prospect  of  their  posthumous  fame  as  the 
founders  of  the  English  drama,  must  soon  bid  farewell  to  the  sock 
and  buskin,  in  some  such  words  as  Shakspere  would  shortly  put 

i  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans  (1732),  vol.  i.  pp.  156,  157. 
1  Strype's  Aylmer,  p.  32. 

*  Whitgift's  Admonition  (Works— Parker),  vol.  i.  p.  884. 
t> 


50  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

into  the  mouth  of  Othello,  "  Our  favourite  occupation's  gone." 
Already  have  rivals  made  their  debut,  who,  though  excluded  from 
the  consecrated  boards,  find  ampler  scope  for  their  versatile  talents 
in  "large  inns,"  and  are  not  prevented  from  imitating  their  spi 
ritual  guides  in  the  selection  of  the  sacred  day  as  the  most  con 
venient  time  for  their  exhibitions.  In  1574,  when  a  plague  was 
decimating  the  population  of  Londcn,  these  persons  so  outraged 
all  religion,  decorum,  and  humanity,  in  pandering  by  their  "un- 
shamefaced  speeches  and  doings,"  to  seduction  and  robbery — for 
which  these  inns  afforded  every  facility — as  to  compel  the  Com 
mon  Council  to  subject  the  plays  to  a  rigid  censorship,  a  measure 
which  the  Queen  and  her  Council,  appealed  to  against  it  by  the 
players,  followed  up  with  an  order  restricting  the  performances 
to  certain  hours  before  sunset.1  These  weak  and  partial  remedies 
having  failed,  and  the  proposal  made  in  1579  of  the  only  effectual 
one — increased  religious  instruction — being  opposed  to  the  royal 
creed  and  will,  jt  was  deemed  necessary  to  resort  to  violence,  and 
in  the  following  year  we  find  her  Majesty  yielding  to  the  suit  of 
the  magistrates  for  authority  to  "  interdict  plays  and  interludes 
on  the  Sabbath-day,"  and  to  that,  moreover,  of  "  many  citizens 
and  gentlemen,"  for  leave  to  "  expel  the  players  out  of  the  city, 
and  to  pull  down  all  the  play-houses  and  dice-houses  within  the 
liberties."  2  A  writer  of  that  year,  lamenting  the  "corruption  of 
youth,  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,"  and  other  evils,  which 
"  the  infamous  players"  had  inflicted  on  society,  says,  "  The  Lord 
is  never  so  ill-served  as  on  the  holidays,  for  then  hell  breaks  loose"* 
The  Queen's  passionate  partiality  for  the  more  barbarous  and 
equally  profane  and  demoralizing  sports,  which  had  for  many 
years  drawn  crowds  to  the  Paris  garden  in  Southwark  on  Lord's 
Diiys,  may  have  discouraged  any  petition,  as  certainly  it  would 
prevent  on  her  part  any  spontaneous  effort  for  their  suppression. 
They  received  in  1583  a  temporary  check,  though  not  from 
"  governors,  who  are  sent  by  Him  for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers, 
as  well  as  for  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well."  On  January 
13,  of  that  year,  being  the  Sabbath-day,  a  thousand  persons 

'  London,  etc.,  by  Brayley,  vol.  i  pp.  284,  285. 

8  Morcr  On,  the  Lord's  Day,  pp.  300,  301. 

»  Bloat  of  Retreat  from  Plays,  in  Bruce's  An.  Sus.  p.  174 


ENGLAND.  51 

having  assembled  to  enjoy  a  bear-baiting,  "one  of  the  scaffolds" 
broke  down,  when  eight  men  and  women  were  killed  and  many 
were  "hurt  and  bruised  to  the  shortening  of  their  days."  The 
"  foul  abuse,"  however,  "  shamelessly  lifted  up  its  head  again," 
till  it  was  finally  removed  by  king  James.1  It  was  in  the  same 
year  that  Elizabeth  first  allowed  a  public  company  of  players  to 
act  under  her  name  and  authority.  "  When  a  regular  theatre  was 
at  length  established,  plays  were  acted  at  first  only  on  Sundays, 
but  the  actors  soon  contrived  to  make  four  or  five  Sundays  a  week. 
The  hour  at  which  the  play  usually  commenced  was  one  o'clock 
in  the  day,  when  a  flag  was  hoisted  on  the  top  of  the  building, 
where  it  remained  till  the  close  of  the  entertainment,  which  lasted 
generally  about  two  hours."2 

There  were  other  flagrant  abuses  of  the  Sabbath.  Throughout 
that  holy  day  provisions  were  everywhere  bought  and  sold,  and 
pedlars  disposed  of  their  wares  in  the  porches  of  the  churches — 
often ces,  which  it  appears  to  have  been  accounted  no  small  feat  of 
legislation  to  restrain  during  canonical  hours.3  In  the  rural  dis 
tricts,  that  day  was  the  chosen  time  for  shooting,  hunting,  hawk 
ing,  tennis,  fencing,  and  similar  exercises,  and  for  the  performances 
of  strolling  players  and  buffoons.  These  votaries  of  gain  and 
pleasure  would  visit  the  churches,  some,  possibly,  to  quiet  their 
consciences,  and  some  to  express  their  contempt.  Falconers  were 
to  be  seen  there  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  with  their  dogs  at 
their  heels,  and  their  hawks  upon  their  fists.4  And  morrice- 
dancers,  -with  suchlike  characters,  would  play  unseemly  parts,  with 
scoffs,  jests,  wanton  gestures,  and  ribald  talk,  in  the  place,  and 
during  the  progress,  of  Divine  worship.5 

To  this  manner  of  spending  sacred  time  there  were  happily 
many  exceptions.  But  the  facts  presented  give  evidence  of  a  wide 
spread  disregard  for  the  sanctities  of  the  Sabbath,  while  they  not 

1  Bownd's  Sabbatum,  etc.,  p.  257  ;  Neal,  vol  i.  p  390 

1  Eccleston's  Antiquities,  p.  309. 

3  This  was  all  that  was  attempted  in  Oranmer's  Visitation  Articles,  the  Canons  of  1571, 
and  Grindal's  Injunctions.  The  restrictions  upon  publicans  and  pedlars,  in  following 
their  vocations,  were  limited  to  the  time  of  common  prayer,  preaching,  reading  of  the 
homilies  or  Scriptures,  or  (as  it  is  in  one  case  provided  with  all  the  simplicity  of  the 
Elizabethan  style  of  religious  education),  "  to  the  time  of  sermon,  if  there  be  any 
sermon." — Wilk.  Condi,  iv.  pp.  24,  266,  269;  Neale's  Feasts  and  Fasts,  pp.  184,  185. 

*  Bownd's  Sabbatwn  (1606),  pp.  263,  264.  *  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  i.  p.  26«. 


52          SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

obscurely  indicate  a  corresponding  measure  of  immorality  in  the 
country  and  period  under  review.  When  it  is  added,  that  the 
criminal  calendar,  much  lighter  than  that  of  modern  Spain,  was 
yet  three  times  heavier  than  that  of  Ireland  in  the  most  disturbed 
of  its  recent  years — the  annual  number  of  executions  in  a  popula 
tion  of  scarcely  five  millions  being  four  hundred — we  see  reason 
to  concur  in  a  remark  which  has  been  made,  that  "  merry  England 
under  Elizabeth  was  rather  a  terrible  country  to  live  in." 1 

For  this  state  of  things  the  responsibility  appears  to  have  at 
tached  chiefly  to  the  highest  authorities  in  the  Church.  They 
refused  to  comply  with  the  demands  of  many  for  further  reforma 
tion.  They  set  themselves  against  measures  for  instructing  an 
ignorant  clergy.  They  exercised  hardly  any  discipline  on  wrong 
doers,  however  scandalous,  whether  ecclesiastics  or  people.  Their 
main  religious  business,  indeed,  for  the  greater  part  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  seems  to  have  consisted  in  persecuting,  when  they  ought  to 
have  been  employed  in  encouraging,  their  most  learned  and  useful 
ministers,  against  whom  no  occasion  could  be  found  except  as 
concerned  the  law  of  their  God.  And  thus  they  reaped  as  they 
had  sown.  The  sanctioned  remains  of  the  old  oppression,  super- 
scition,  and  ignorance,  yielded,  according  to  their  amount,  the 
natural  and  wonted  produce  of  profaneness,  proiligacy,  and  crime. 
Nor  was  their  example  without  its  blighting  influence  on  the 
religion  and  morals  of  the  land.  We  have  already  adverted  to 
some  of  the  lessons  practically  inculcated  by  the  Sovereign,  whose 
sex,  early  sufferings,  acquirements,  energy,  self-identification  with 
her  people,  dignified  bearing,  and  successful  government,  made  her 
the  object  of  the  nation's  honour  and  love,  and  thus  the  more 
powerful  for  good  or  evil.  Of  Archbishop  Parker  it  has  been  said, 
"  His  Grace  had  too  little  regard  for  public  virtue  ;  his  entertain 
ments  and  feastings  being  chiefly  on  the  Lord's  Day  :  nor  do  we 
read  among  his  episcopal  qualities  of  his  diligent  preaching,  or 
pious  example."2  After  his  death,  Aylmer,  bishop  of  London, 
and  Archbishop  Whitgift,  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  leading 
men  of  the  Church  for  many  years.  The  former,  the  honoured 
tutor  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  tnen  an  exile  for  his  Protestantism, 

i  Wade's  Middle  and  Working  Clatses  (1842),  p.  23. 
»  Neal's  Puritan*  vol.  1.  p.  S41. 


ENGLAND.  53 

afterwards  on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  an  ardent  reformer, 
justly  though  coarsely  assailing,  in  his  Harbour  for  Faithful  Sub 
jects,  the  extravagant  emoluments,  dignities,  and  authority  of  the 
bishops,  became  in  due  time  a  conformist,  alleging,  on  being 
twitted  with  his  former  opinions,  that  "  when  he  was  a  child  he 
spake  as  a  child,  and  thought  as  a  child."  The  latter,  though  he 
shrank  from  being  a  confessor  in  the  days  of  Mary,  felt  a  tran 
sient  glow  of  indignation  at  the  treatment  by  Parker  of  the  Puri 
tans,  but  he  also,  on  reaching  the  years  of  discretion,  devoted  him 
self  to  the  support  of  things  as  they  were.  Both  were  persons  of 
talent  and  learning,  but  they  alike  fell  into  an  error  fatal  to  their 
character  as  ministers  of  religion,  when  they  surrendered  their 
consciences  to  the  will  of  an  earthly  sovereign.  "  The  eye  was 
not  single,"  and  hence  the  dark  procedure  of  severity  to  faithful 
"  fellow-servants,"  of  indulgence  to  the  unfaithful,  of  forbidding 
some,  and  not  providing  others,  to  speak  to  the  ignorant  that  they 
might  be  saved.  While  we  recognise  with  pleasure  the  sympathy 
of  Aylmer  with  the  sufferers  in  the  plague  of  1578,  and  the  in 
terest  taken  by  Whitgift  in  public  charities,  with  his  ultimate 
relenting  towards  Cartwright,  when  this  great  antagonist,  in  ap 
pearing  before  him,  "  behaved  with  so  much  modesty  and  respect," 
we  are  bound  to  say  that  their  standard  of  Christian  principle  and 
conduct  was  far  from  being  high.  Love  to  the  Sabbath,  rever 
ence  for  the  name  of  God,  regard  to  truth,  mercy,  humility,  and 
justice,  are  among  the  plainest  marks  of  moral  excellence.  The 
bishop  "  usually  played  at  bowls  on  the  Sundays  in  the  afternoons, 
and  used  such  language  at  his  game  as  justly  exposed  his  charac 
ter  to  reproach  ;'J1  the  archbishop  "  called  in"  a  book  which  was 
producing  a  "  more  solemn  and  strict  observation  of  the  Lord's 
Day"  in  the  country,2  and  was  in  the  "  constant  custom"  of  mak 
ing  promises  to  the  great,  of  kindness  towards  the  nonconformists, 
which  he  never  fulfilled.3  The  spirit  of  the  one  was  as  high  as 
that  of  the  greatest  lord  in  the  land  ;4  the  spirit  of  the  other 

1  Neal's  Puritans,  vol.  i.  p.  576. 

2  Fuller's  Church  History  (1655),  Book  ix.  p.  227.     Fuller  cites  Rogers,  as  in  Pretace 
to  the  Articles,  alleging  that  Bownd's  Sallatum,  the  book  referred  to,  was  called  in  "by 
Whitgift.     The  same  allegation  is  made  by  Heylyn,  though,  as  we  shall  see,  discredited 
by  Twisse. 

8  Neal's  Puritans,  vol.  i.  p.  218.  *  Btrype's  Aylm«r,  p.  84. 


64:  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

showed  itself  in  affecting  a  pomp,  which  in  his  retinue,  of  some 
times  a  thousand  horsemen  including  a  hundred  servants,  many 
of  them  with  gold  chains,  resembled  that  of  Wolsey,  and  in  his 
cathedral  worship  emulated  the  gorgeous  ceremonial  of  the  Pope's 
chapel.1  His  lordship  of  London,  instead  of  carrying  out  his 
early  proposal  that  the  bishops  should  apply  the  superfluities  of 
their  large  revenues  to  the  maintenance  of  the  wars  which  they 
had  procured,  and  to  the  extension  of  schools  and  preaching, 
became  an  accumulator  of  money,2  while  his  Grace  of  Canterbury 
"  seldom  failed  to  offer"  "  the  perpetual  incense  of  profuse  adula 
tion  at  the  shrine  of  secular  power,"3  of  which  a  mournful  instance 
was  afforded  when  he  ascribed  the  King's  medley  of  learning  and 
folly  uttered  at  the  Hampton  Court  Conference  to  the  special 
assistance  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Both  were  choleric  men,  who 
poured  out  the  language  of  the  most  undignified  abuse  on  the  Puri 
tan  ministers,  and  indulged  in  a  treatment  of  them,  which,  on  the 
part  of  the  bishop,  amounted  sometimes  to  brutality  and  outrage 
on  common  justice,4  and,  on  that  of  the  primate,  "savoured," 
according  to  Lord  Burghley,  "  of  the  Romish  Inquisition  ;"  and. 
in  the  complication  of  toils  spread  for  entrapping  victims,  exceeded 
the  Inquisition  of  Spain — the  whole  being  a  device  to  seek  for 
rather  than  to  reform  offenders,  and  tending  to  encourage  Papists 
as  well  as  endanger  the  Queen's  safety.5  Let  not  ignorance  of 
the  principles  of  true  liberty  be  assigned  as  an  apology  for  any 
doings  of  the  kind,  still  less  for  their  grosser  forms,  or  for  the  con 
duct  of  Puritans,  whether  in  submitting  to  them  then,  or  in  imi 
tating  them  in  any  measure  afterwards.  These  principles  lay 
clearly  before  them  in  the  Bible.  They  were  not  altogether  un 
known  to  Zuinglius,  Luther,  or  Queen  Elizabeth's  council.  And 
persecution  is  the  error,  not  of  mere  times  and  circumstances,  but 
of  human  nature — of  the  heart  rather  than  of  the  head. 

That  under  such  an  ecclesiastical  rule  the  nation  did  not  reveii 
to  Popery,  as  more  than  once  it  was  apprehended  it  would,  o~ 
that  it  did  not  sink  to  a  lower  depth,  was  owing  to  the  measure 
of  reformation  which  it  retained,  and  to  the  agencies  and  means 

i  Paule's  Life  of  Whitgift  (Lond.  4to,  1612),  pp.  78,  79. 

*  Nsal,  vol.  i.  pp.  441-443.  3  Toplady's  Works  (1837),  p.  212 

«  Neal,  vol.  i.  pp.  365,  374,  383,  432,  etc          *  Fuller's  Church  History,  B.  tt  p  166. 


ENGLAND.  55 

of  good,  which,  though  crippled  and  borne  down,  were  not  extin 
guished  It  was  good  for  England  that  its  civil  affairs  were  under 
the  direction  of  wise  counsellors  who  knew  how  to  influence  the 
regal  will,  particularly  Lord  Burghley,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
statesmen1 — that  the  Queen,  who  dreaded  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
of  the  pulpit,  and  of  Parliament,  made  her  subjects  nevertheless 
welcome  to  the  Homilies,  to  the  Prayer-book,  to  the  Catechism, 
to  Jewell's  Apology  and  Reply,  to  Fox's  Acts  and  Monuments — 
all  containing  much  precious  truth  ;  and,  above  all,  to  an  open 
Bible,  of  which  one  hundred  and  thirty  distinct  publications  were 
issued  in  the  course  of  her  reign,2 — and  that  neither  she  nor 
others  could  altogether  prevent  such  men  as  Grindal,  whom 
Bacon  called  "  the  greatest  and  gravest  prelate  of  the  land," 
Pilkington,  Parkhurst,  and  Noell,  from  sowing  beside  all  waters 
the  seed  of  truth,  or  the  Puritans  from  doing  much  good  under 
the  sheltering  wings  of  these  good  men,  and,  when  deprived  of 
the?.r  protection,  from  being  received  into  the  houses  of  the 
nobility,  gentry,  and  wealthy  citizens,  where  they  discharged  the 
duties  of  chaplains  and  tutors  with  a  beneficial  effect  which  was 
experienced  in  the  next  generation.  It  was,  under  Providence, 
to  such  means  as  these,  in  other  words,  to  the  degree  in  which 
the  principles  of  the  ^Reformation  exerted  their  enlightening  and 
elevating  power,  that  England  was  indebted  for  her  superiority 
in  commerce,  wealth,  literature,  and  military  fame,  to  the  other 
nations  of  Europe. 

Of  these  means  not  the  least  salutary  remains  to  be  noticed. 
If  any  one  thing  more  than  another  turned  the  people  adrift  on 
the  sea  of  ungodliness  and  vice,  and  defeated  the  ends  of  religion 
and  government,  it  was  an  unsanctih'ed  Sabbath.  In  proportion, 
therefore,  as  any  applied  the  institution  to  its  purposes  of  sacred 
rest  and  service,  they  kept  themselves  and  those  under  their  care 
from  moral  ruin,  came  with  their  families  under  the  power  of 
sanctifying  objects  and  exercises,  leavened  instead  of  further  cor 
rupting  the  human  mass  around  them,  and  brought  down  on  their 

1  "The  High  Church  policy  which  may  be  traced  in  the  councils  of  Elizabeth,  from 
the  death  of  Lord  Burghley,  certainly  went  far  to  weaken  her  popularity  during  tho 
last  years  of  her  reign."— British  Quarterly  Review  for  February  1848,  p.  74. 

»  Anderson's  Aniialt  of  the  English  Bible,  vol.  ii.  p.  353. 


56          SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTKOVERSIES. 

country,  in  its  arms,  trade,  and  literary  studies,  the  enriching 
blessing  of  Heaven.  The  men,  too,  who  urged  sabbatic  claims 
on  their  brethren  from  the  press  or  pulpit,  were  signal  benefactors 
to  the  religion  and  every  interest  of  the  community.  "Wherever 
there  is  sound  and  practical  Christianity,  there  must  be  friends 
and  advocates  of  the  Lord's  Day.  Tyndale  in  the  twilight  of  a 
transition  from  the  darkness  of  Popery  to  the  light  of  Reforma 
tion,  though  he  may  utter  crudities  in  the  heat  of  his  zeal  against 
arrogant  assumption,  must,  as  the  appropriated  time  in  the  weekly 
cycle  comes  round,  obey  at  once  the  Divine  command,  and  the 
instinct  and  necessities  of  his  new  nature,  by  retreating  into  an 
inner  and  holier  sanctuary.  Over  England,  there  doubtless  were 
many  both  before  and  after  the  Reformation,  who,  feeding  on  such 
portions  of  the  word  of  God  as  they  possessed,  spent  His  day  in 
sacred  thoughts  and  acts,  and  wept  in  secret  places  over  the  abuse 
and  waste  of  its  golden  hours.  Various  instances  of  reverence 
and  zeal  for  that  day  have  already  appeared  in  the  course  of  this 
sketch.  And  we  must  now  hastily  notice  some  other  illustrations 
of  this  spirit,  as  it  appears  struggling  against  the  opposite  error 
and  evil  in  the  few  years  that  must  yet  elapse  ere  the  sabbatic 
institution  be  for  the  first"  time  the  occasion  of  convulsing  the 
Church. 

For  twenty  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  in  1562,  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath  seemed  to  have  occa 
sion  for  exerting  themselves  against  practical  rather  than  theore 
tical  errors  on  the  subject.  Instances  of  their  zeal  in  this  respect 
have  already  been  noticed.  Let  others  be  now  added.  There 
appeared  about  the  year  1577,  a  treatise  by  John  Northbrooke, 
minister  and  preacher  of  the  word  of  God,  reprinted,  singularly 
enough,  by  "the  Shakespeare  Society"  in  1843,  which  was  de 
signed  to  "  reprove,"  by  the  authority  of  Scripture  and  ancient 
writers,  a  variety  of  idle  pastimes,  "  commonly  used  on  the  Sab- 
both-day."  It  is  the  fourth  instance  in  which  the  institution,  so 
far  as  we  have  seen,  has  been  mentioned  in  the  title-page  of  any 
book  ;  but  on  examining  the  work,  we  find  that  its  sole  object  is 
to  prove,  that  "  dicing,  dauncing,  vaine  plays,  or  enterludes," 
etc.,  are  at  all  times  improper  and  hurtful,  from  which  we  are 
left  to  draw  the  inference,  that  they  are  especially  so  on  the 


ENGLAND.  57 

Lord's  Day.  Northbrooke  was  followed  by  Humphrey  Robartes, 
in  A  Complaint  for  Reformation  of  similar  abuses,  published  in 
1580.  We  have  not  seen  this  publication,  nor  one  of  the  year 
1583,  which  considered  the  calamity  in  the  Paris  garden  as  a 
Divine  judgment,  and  called  for  reform  in  reference  to  Sabbath 
observance.  After  mentioning  the  execution  this  year  of  two 
ministers,  Messrs.  Thacker  and  Copping,  who,  though  "  sound  in 
the  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  of  un 
blemished  lives,"  were  condemned  to  die  for  circulating  a  work 
against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  author  himself,  Robert 
Brown,  being  at  the  same  time  pardoned  and  set  at  liberty,  Neal 
observes,  "  While  the  bishops  were  thus  harassing  honest  and 
conscientious  ministers  for  scrupling  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church, 
practical  religion  was  at  a  very  low  ebb  ;  the  fashionable  vices 
of  the  time  were  profane  swearing,  drunkenness,  revelling,  gaming, 
and  profanation  of  the  Lord's  Day  ;  but  there  was  no  discipline 
for  these  offenders,  nor  do  I  find  any  such  cited  into  the  spiritual 
courts,  or  shut  up  in  prisons.  If  men  came  to  their  parish 
churches,  and  approved  of  the  habits  and  ceremonies,  other 
offences  were  overlooked,  and  the  court  was  easy."1  The  Lord 
Mayor  of  London  evinced  a  concern  for  the  Sabbath-day,  which 
honourably  distinguished  not  a  few  who  held  the  office  both  be 
fore  and  after  his  time.  Writing  that  year  to  the  Lord  Trea 
surer,  soon  after  the  tragic  scene  in  the  Paris  garden,  he  says, 
that  "  it  gives  great  occasion  to  acknowledge  the  hand  of  God 
for  such  abuse  of  his  Sabbath-day,  and  moveth  me  in  conscience 
to  give  order  for  redress  of  such  contempt  of  God's  service  ;" 
adding,  that  for  this  purpose  he  had  treated  with  some  Justices 

1  Neal,  vol.  i.  p.  390.  Bishop  Aylmer  displaced  a  minister,  because  he  had  in 
formed  him  that  "  within  the  compass  of  sixteen  miles  there  were  twenty-two  non-resi 
dents,  thirty  insufficient  and  scandalous  ministers,  and  nineteen  silenced  for  refusing 
subscription,"  and  because  it  was  alleged,  that  he  was  chosen  by  the  people,  had 
defaced  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  denied  that  Christ  descended  into  the  regions 
of  the  damned,  and  kept  persons  from  the  Communion,  when  there  was  more  need 
to  allure  them  to  it ;  but  refused  compliance  with  the  petition  of  the  parishioners  to 
remove  that  minister's  successor,  saying,  "that  he  would  not,  for  all  the  livings  he 
had,  put  a  poor  man  out  of  his  living  for  the  fact  of  adultery."  And  yet  this  rigid 
disciplinarian  in  rituals  though  not  in  morals— in  transgressions  of  human,  not  of 
Dirine  injunctions,  made  his  own  porter  minister  of  Paddington !  Strype's  Ayliner, 
pp  120,  121,  212,  213;  Brook,  vol.  iL  pp  166,  ISS.ttofc. 


58  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

of  Peace  in  Surrey,  who  expressed  a  very  good  zeal,  but  alleged 
want  of  commission,  which  he  referred  to  the  consideration  of  his 
Lordship.1  Neal  states  that  the  Court  paid  no  regard  to  such 
remonstrances.  Neither  the  Queen  nor  the  Bishop  of  London 
could  consistently  with  their  own  practice  interfere.  But  what 
has  become  of  Burghley,  who  had  made  sacrifices  for  his  religion, 
who  had  such  power  in  the  council,  and  who  uttered  the  noble 
words,  "  I  will  trust  no  man  if  he  be  not  of  sound  religion,  for 
he  that  is  false  to  God  can  never  be  true  to  man  "  1  The  person 
who  had  such  views,  and  who  "  never  retired  to  rest  out  of 
charity  with  any  man,"  was  not  likely  to  forget  his  duty  on  this 
occasion  ;  but  how  he  acted  we  are  not  aware. 

To  the  year  1583  belongs  the  first  appearance  of  Gervase 
Babington  (born  1551,  died  1610)  as  an  author  on  our  subject. 
In  his  work  of  that  year,  An  Exposition  of  the  Ten  Command 
ments,  of  which  another  edition  appeared  in  1586,  and  in  his 
Commentary  on  Genesis,  which  is  to  be  found  in  his  collected 
works  of  1596  and  1615,  he  maintained  the  primaeval  institution 
of  the  Sabbath, — the  Divine  authority  of  its  transference  from  the 
seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, — and  the  obligation  of  devot 
ing  the  Lord's  Day,  except  in  cases  of  absolute  necessity,  to  holy 
rest  and  service,  according  to  the  prescription  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment.  Having  been  educated  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
of  which  he  became  Fellow,  and  having  taken  his  degrees  of  A.M. 
and  D.D.,  he  was  made  domestic  chaplain  to  the  Earl  of  Pem 
broke,  whose  Countess  he  assisted  in  her  version  of  the  Psalms 
into  English  metre.  After  a  course  of  diligent  stud}7,  and  show 
ing  himself  a  most  impressive  preacher,  he  was  appointed  prebend 
ary  of  Wellington  in  1588,  and  in  1591  advanced  to  the  bishopric 
of  LlandafF,  "thence  translated  to  Exeter,  thence  to  Worcester, 
thence  to  Heaven,"  says  Fuller,  who  adds,  "  He  was  an  excellent 
pulpit  man,  happy  in  raising  the  affections  of  his  auditory,  which 
having  got  up,  he  would  keep  up,  till  the  close  of  his  sermon." 
It  has  been  further  said  of  him,  that  he  was  remarkably  devoid 
of  the  failings  which  attach  to  some  even  of  the  best  of  men,  and 
that  Ids  life  was  spent  in  the  cultivation  of  his  mind,  ani  in  the 
exercise  of  every  virtue. 

*  Ne»l,  vol.  i.  p.  300. 


ENGLAND.  59 

While  a  few  were  thus  coping  with  a  wide-spread,  and,  by  the 
chief  authorities,  practically  sanctioned  evil,  a  greater  number  were 
applying  the  remedies  of  a  preached  gospel,  and  private  religious 
instruction,  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Greenham  at  Dray- 
ton,  Bownd  at  Norton,  and  Perkins  at  Cambridge,  had,  for  a  longer 
or  briefer  space,  proclaimed  those  weighty  and  impressive  truths 
relative  to  the  Sabbath,  as  to  many  other  subjects,  which  were  after 
wards  given  to  the  world  in  their  valuable  works.  Thomas  Rogers 
at  Horningsheatli  would,  before  his  suspension  for  nonconformity, 
render  good  service  to  the  institution,  though  he  saw  reason  ere 
long  to  change  his  opinions,  and  turn  informer  against  the  culprit, 
who  was,  to  his  taste,  unduly  zealous  for  the  just,  hoiy,  and  good 
commandment,  "  Remember  that  thou  keep  holy  the  Sabbath-day." 
Others  there  were,  in  considerable  numbers,  who,  if  not  so  cele 
brated,  were  like-minded  men.  When  Dr.  Bownd  was  suspended, 
between  two  and  three  hundred  ministers  shared  his  fate.  We 
wonder  that  the  race  of  Puritans  was  not  extirpated.  But  as 
hundred  after  hundred  of  them  were  suspended,  others  were  seen 
to  spring  up  as  from  the  ground,  like  the  fabled  crop  of  armed 
warriors  of  old,  or  rather  like  the  veritable  people,  of  whom  it  is 
testified  that,  "  the  more  they  afflicted  them,  they  more  they  mul 
tiplied  and  grew  ;"  so  that  after  thirty  and  forty  years  of  oppres 
sion,  there  were  in  1592,  according  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  state 
ment  in  Parliament,  twenty  thousand  nonconformists  without,  and 
in  1603,  according  to  the  words  of  the  Millenary  Petition,  upwards 
of  a  thousand  ministers  who  were  aggrieved  at  ceremonial  strict 
ness  and  sabbatic  laxity,  within,  the  pale  of  the  Church.  It  was 
remarkable,  moreover,  that  the  pulpit  and  the  press  were  left  so  free 
to  the  advocates  of  the  Lord's  Day.  The  Queen  appeared  to  be 
content  with  the  neglecting  of  petitions,  and  the  quashing  of  Par 
liamentary  bills,  having  for  their  object  its  better  observance.  The 
leading  prelates,  what  with  looking  after  unsurpliced  incumbents, 
what  with  enjoying  their  entertainments  or  games,  seemed  to  have 
their  hands  full.  At  all  events,  though  Greenham,  Perkins,  and 
Dod  suffered  on  account  of  the  ceremonies,  they,  with  Bishop 
Babington,  and  others,  were  all,  excepting  Smith  and  Bownd,  per 
mitted  to  plead  the  claims  of  the  weekly  holy  day  without  harass 
ment  or  hindrance. 


60  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

It  might  be  conceived,  from  the  state  of  matters  in  1584,  that 
the  efforts  employed  on  behalf  of  the  institution  had  been  unsuc 
cessful.  A  writer  of  that  year  informs  us  not  only  that  few  spent 
the  Lord's  Day  in  the  public  and  private  exercises  of  religion, 
"  the  greatest  multitude  of  men  and  women  of  all  degrees  and 
callings,  letting  loose  the  reins  and  giving  out  the  bridle  unto  all 
kinds  of  vanities  and  licentiousness,"  but,  what  has  not  previously 
appeared,  that  there  were  "manifold  disputations  among  the 
learned,"  and  "  a  great  diversity  of  opinion  among  the  vulgar 
people  and  simple  sort,  concerning  the  Sabboth-day,  and  the  right 
.use  of  the  same" — some  maintaining  the  unchanged  and  unchange 
able  obligation  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath  ;  others  utterly  deny 
ing  that  there  ought  to  be  a  dedication  of  any  day  to  the  Divine 
service  ;  and  a  third  class,  while  they  granted  that  the  first  day 
of  the  week  should  be  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  ministry 
and  church  meetings,  holding  that  every  man  might  lawfully  follow 
his  usual  calling  on  that  as  on  any  other  day.  And  yet,  without 
questioning  that  bad  practice  in  some  had  led  to  the  adoption  and 
avowal  of  bad  principles,  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  alleged  dis 
putes  and  diversities  gave  evidence  that  the  general  mind  was 
awakened  to  thought  and  inquiry,  which  further  information 
would  guide  to  a  good  result.  One  effect  would  be  that  religious 
men  would  avail  themselves  of  the  spirit  abroad  in  the  community 
by  imparting  sound  instruction.  It  was  so  in  fact.  The  writer 
referred  to  was  an  instance.  He  translated  and  published  that 
part  of  the  works  of  Ursinus  which  treated  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment,  observing,  in  "The  Epistle  Dedicatory,"  from  which 
the  preceding  information  has  been  derived  :  "  I  have  thought  with 
myself  that  I  could  not  do  better  than  to  seek  out  a  remedy  for 
the  staying  of  the  consciences  of  the  weaker  number  in  this  great 
variety  and  doubtfulness  of  assertions,  tending  to  the  overthrow 
of  religion  and  impeachment  of  God's  service  ;"  and  "  finding  the 
argument  [of  Ursinus]  fit  for  the  circumstance  of  the  time,  I  have 
turned  the  same  into  our  mother  tongue,  for  the  further  benefit  of 
the  godly  and  christianly  disposed,  that  they  may  have  in  this 
point  wherewith  to  satisfy  both  themselves  and  others."1 

1  Of  this  worthy  man  we  have  ascertained  nothing  more  than  is  stated  on  the  title- 
page  of  his  translation,  where  he  designates  himself  "John  Stoclrwood,  Schoolmaster 


EtfGLAKD.  Cl 

Archbishop  Whitgift,  on  his  elevation  to  the  primacy  in  Sep 
tember  1583,  received  from  the  Queen  "  a  strait  charge,"  as  he 
afterwards  termed  it,  to  restore  the  discipline  and  uniformity  of 
the  Church,  which,  through  some  conniving  prelates,  the  obstinate 
Puritans,  and  a  few  powerful  noblemen,  had  "  run  out  of  square." 
And  when  we  consider  that  within  the  year  he  had  published  his 
three  Articles,  procuring  for  their  enforcement  an  ecclesiastical 
commission,  with  powers  beyond  those  of  any  preceding  one,  and 
that,  not  satisfied  with  the  domestic  misery  and  spiritual  desolation 
spread  by  these  engines  of  cruelty  and  terror  over  many  parts  nf 
the  land,  he  has  sought  and  obtained  in -1585  a  decree  for  a  fur 
ther  restraint  on  the  press,  we  are  not  surprised  that  under  such 
a  regime  the  sacred  enclosure  of  the  weekly  rest  should  in  that 
year  be  threatened  with  invasion,  and  a  worthy  man  called  to 
account  for  urging  obedience  to  the  sabbatic  law  of  his  country.1 
Nothing,  indeed,  came  of  the  interference,  but  it  showed  how  mat 
ters,  under  a  growing  intolerance,  were  tending.  The  case  is  thus 
stated  by  Neal ; — "The  Rev.  Mr.  Smith,  M.A.,  in  his  sermon 

of  Tunbridge,"  beyond  the  fact,  that  he  published  a  variety  of  other  pieces,  chiefly 
^translations  of  portions  of  the  writings  of  Bullinger,  Beza,  etc. ,  under  the  character,  in 
some  instances,  of  "minister"  as  well  as  schoolmaster,  and  dating  the  preface  to'  the 
first-mentioned,  "  Zurich,  1556,"  from  which  it  might  be  supposed  that  he  was  then  an 
exile.  The  work  before  us  is  dedicated  to  "Lady  Pelham,"  a  daughter-in-law  of  Sir 
N.  Pelham,  "  a  learned  man  and  a  favourer  of  the  Reformation."  We  might  conjecture 
that  Stockwood  was  one  of  the  men  who,  in  those  times  of  "  sore  travail,"  was  driven 
from  the  profession  of  a  minister  to  that  of  a  teacher. 

1  This  decree — the  third  instance  in  which  the  liberty  of  the  press  was  abridged  in  this 
reign,  each  successive  one  worse  than  the  preceding — restricted  printing-presses  to  Lon 
don  and  the  two  Universities,  and  ordered  that  no  book  should  be  printed  against  any 
of  the  laws  in  being,  or  any  of  the  Queen's  injunctions — that  no  new  presses  should  be 
set  up  but  by  license  from  the  Archbishop,  or  Bishop  of  London  for  the  time  being,  and 
that  no  person  should  print  any  book  unless  first  allowed  according  to  the  foresaid  in 
junctions,  and  seen  and  perused  by  one  of  these  prelates  or  their  chaplains. — Strype's 
Whit-gift,  p.  223.  The  press  was  thus  "  in  the  hands  of  the  Archbishop,  who  took  all 
possible  care  to  stifle  the  writings  of  the  Puritans,  while  he  gave  license  to  Ascanio,  an 
Italian  merchant  and  bookseller  in  London,  to  import  what  Popish  books  he  thought  fit, 
upon  this  very  odd  pretence,  that  the  adversaries'  arguments  being  better  known  by 
learned  men  might  be  more  easily  confuted. "  The  Puritans,  however,  found  ways  and 
means  from  abroad  to  propagate  their  writings  and  expose  the  severity  of  their  ad 
versaries.  Some  of  them  purchased  a  private  press  in  1589,  and  carried  it  from  one 
county  to  another  to  prevent  disco  very.  Satirical  pamphlets,  answered  with  equal  buf 
foonery,  issued  from  it,  and  were  dispersed  over  the  kingdom,  till  the  press  being  dis 
covered  and  seized,  some  of  its  supporters  were  "deeply  fined,"  and  others  -were  potto 
.1*ath.~- Neal,  vol.  i.  pp.  *«3,  482,  ftos,  507. 


62  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

before  the  University  of  Cambridge,  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent, 
maintained  the  unlawfulness  of  these  plays" — plays  on  the  even 
ings,  and  sometimes  in  the  afternoons  of  Lord's  Days — "  for  which 
he  was  summoned  before  the  Vice-Chancellor,  and  upon  examina 
tion  offered  to  prove,  that  the  Christian  Sabbath  ought  to  be 
observed  by  an  abstinence  from  all  worldly  business,  and  spent  in 
works  of  piety  and  charity ;  though  he  did  not  apprehend  we 
were  bound  to  the  strictness  of  the  Jewish  precepts.  The  Parlia 
ment  had  taken  this  matter  into  consideration,  and  passed  a  bill 
for  the  better  and  more  reverent  observation  of  the  Sabbath,  which 
the  Speaker  recommended  to  the  Queen  in  an  elegant  speech ;  but 
her  Majesty  refused  to  pass  it,  under  the  pretence  of  not  suffering 
the  Parliament  to  meddle  with  matters  of  religion,  which  was  her 
prerogative.  However,  the  thing  appeared  so  reasonable,  that, 
without  the  assistance  of  a  law,  the  religious  observation  of  the 
Sabbath  grew  into  esteem  with  all  sober  persons,  and  after  a  few 
years  became  the  distinguishing  mark  of  a  Puritan."  1 

If  such  a  case  as  that  of  Smith  was  rare  in  this  reign,  not  less 
so  the  necessity  of  defending  the  institution  against  an  attack  made 
on  it  through  the  press.  This  necessity  arose  in  1585,  when  the 
Rhemes  New  Testament  appeared.  Tl»e  individuals  who  wrote  and 
printed  this  book  at  Kheims,  and  the  Old  Testament  at  Douay  in 
1609,  were  four  exiled  Englishmen  and  Romanists,  William  Allyn, 
afterwards  Cardinal,  Gregory  Martin,  Richard  Bristow,  authors  of 
the  translation,  and  Thomas  Worthington,  writer  of  the  notes. 
The  whole  was  designed  for  the  Roman  Catholics  in  England,  from 
whom  it  was  seen  that  the  Bible  could  no  longer  be  withheld,  and 
yet  whom,  as  was  also  seen,  it  would  be  fatal  to  a  bolstered-up 
system  to  trust  with  the  Bible  in  a  true  and  unglossed  version. 
A  work  in  which,  by  false  renderings  of  the  text,  and  a  mass  of 
sophistical  notes,  a  portion  of  the  Word  of  God  was  wrested  in 
support  of  Popery,  was  conceived  to  demand  a  reply.  Many,  in 
cluding  Dr.  Fulke,  concurred  with  Beza  in  pointing  to  Cartwright 
as  the  fittest  man  to  write  it,  and  petitioned  him  to  undertake  the 
task.  He  had  yielded  to  their  importunities  ;  hut  Whitgift,  hold 
ing  him  to  be  too  much  of  a  Puritan,  "  forbade  him  to  proceed," 
and  recommended  for  the  service  Dr.  Fulke,. who  published  a  con* 

1  Neal,  vol.  i.  pp.  461,  4435.— For  a  life  of  Smith  (Smyth),  see  Erook'a  Puritan*. 


ENGLAND.  63 

filiation  in  1589.  "  A  View  of  the  Marginal  Notes  in  the  Popish 
Testament,"  by  Dr.  George  Withers,  appeared  in  1588.  Cart 
wright  proceeded  with  his  work,  which  was  published  in  1618, 
fifteen  years  after  his  death,  and  though  closing  with  Rev.  xvii., 
was,  according  to  Fuller,  "so  complete  a  refutation,  that  the 
Rhemists  durst  never  answer  it."  Among  the  errors  of  the 
Rhemes  New  Testament  were  its  sabbatic  opinions.  In  the  re 
marks  on  Rev.  i.  10,  the  annotator  declares,  that  the  apostles  and 
the  faithful  abrogated  the  Sabbath  of  the  seventh  day,  and  made 
the  eighth  day  in  count  from  the  creation  holy  day  in  its  place, 
and  this  without  all  Scriptures  or  commandment  of  Christ ;  and 
that  if  the  Church  had  authority  and  inspiration  to  make  Sunday 
(being  a  week-day  before)  an  everlasting  holy  day,  and  the  Satur 
day,  that  was  before  a  holy  day,  now  a  common  work-day,  the 
same  Church  may  prescribe  and  appoint  the  other  holy  feasts  of 
Easter,  Whitsuntide,  Christmas,  and  the  rest.  No  proofs  are 
given  of  these  statements  and  assumptions,  and  it  is,  therefore, 
sufficient  to  meet  them  with  the  following  counter-assertions  of 
Dr.  Fulke  : — "  That  the  Lord's  Day  was  sanctified  instead  of  the 
Jewish  Saboth,  for  the  assemblies  of  the  faithful  to  the  public 
exercises  of  religion,  we  learn  by  this  place.  But  that  there  were. 
any  other  holy  days  beside  this,  we  find  not  in  the  Scriptures. 
The  apostles  did  not  abrogate  the  Jewish  Saboth,  but  Christ  him 
self  by  His  death,  as  He  did  all  other  ceremonies  of  the  law  that 
were  figures  and  shadows  of  things  to  come,  whereof  He  was  the 
body,  and  they  were  fulfilled  and  accomplished  in  Him  and  by 
Him.  And  this  the  apostles  knew,  both  by  the  Scriptures,  and 
by  the  word  of  Christ,  and  by  his  Holy  Spirit.  By  the  Scripture 
also  they  knew,  that  one  day  of  seven  was  appointed  to  be  observed 
for  ever,  during  the  world,  as  consecrated  and  hallowed  to  the 
public  exercises  of  the  religion  of  God,  although  the  ceremonial 
rest  and  prescript-day,  according  to  the  law,  were  abrogated  by  the 
death  of  Christ.  Now  for  the  prescription  of  this  day  before  any 
other  of  the  seven,  they  had  without  doubt,  either  the  express 
commandment  of  Christ  before  His  ascension,  when  He  gave  the 
precepts  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  ordering  and 
government  of  the  Church  (Acts  i.  2),  or  else  the  certain  direction 
of  His  Spirit,  that  it  was  His  will  and  pleasure  it  should  be  so, 


64  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

and  that,  also,  according  to  the  Scriptures.  ...  To  change  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  keep  it  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  or  any  other  day, 
the  Church  hath  no  authority.  For  it  is  not  a  matter  of  indifter- 
ency,  but  a  necessary  prescription  of  Christ  himself  delivered  to  us 
by  His  apostles."  l 

It  has  been  observed  respecting  the  learned  and  voluminous 
writings  of  this  author,  that  they  are  "  monuments  of  his  industry 
and  love  of  study,  and  furnish  satisfactory  evidence,  that  among 
contemporary  scholars  none  surpassed  him  in  erudition,  in  a  gram 
matical  and  deep  acquaintance  with  the  learned  tongues,  in  acute- 
ness  and  closeness  of  reasoning,  and  vigorous  and  untiring  energy  in 
supporting  the  bulwarks,"  and  it  ought  to  be  added,  in  labouring 
for  the  reformation  "  of  the  Church  of  England."2  Dr.  William 
Fulke  (died  1589)  was  born  in  London,  educated  in  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  of  which  he  was  chosen  Fellow  in  1564, 
expelled  for  his  intimacy  with  Cartwright  and  suspected  puritan- 
ism,  presented  successively  to  the  rectories  of  Wesley  and  Den- 
nington,  and  after  accompanying  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  *on  his 
embassy  to  the  Court  of  France,  appointed  to  the  mastership  of 
Pembroke  Hall,  where  he  found  leisure  for  his  literary  labours. 
-  The  excellent  and  laborious  Perkins  had  repeatedly  appeared  as 
an  author  before  the  year  1591,  but  in  that  year  he  published — 
A  Golden  Chain  ;  or  the  Description  of  Theology,  where,  in  a 
chapter  on  the  Fourth  Commandment,  he  for  the  first  time  treated 
of  the  sabbatic  institution.  The  views  there  expressed,  and  after 
wards  repeated  with  more  or  less  amplification  in  his  Cases  of 
Conscience,  and  in  his  Commentaries  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  and  the  first  three  chapters  of  the  Revelation,  though 
affirmed  with  diffidence,  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  of 
Hooper,  of  the  Homilies,  of  Babington,  and  Fulke.  It  appears, 
that  previously  to  their  publication  in  print,  they  had  been  pro 
pagated  by  written,  as  they  had  been  by  his  oral,  words.  Zealous 
hearers  took  them  down  from  his  lips,  and  their  notes  were 
widely  circulated.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  shackled  state  of 
the  press  would  promote,  if  it  did  not  suggest,  the  practice.  In 

1  The  Text  of  the  New  Testament,  etc.  (1601),  on  Rev.  1.  10. 

2  Biographical  Account  in  Defence  of  English  Translation  qf  the  Scriptures,  Park.  Soa 
edition. 


ENGLAND.  65 

this  way  the  preacher  had  his  sentiments  conveyed  from  Cam 
bridge  to  Dublin,  and  contributed  to  form  the  character  of  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  men  in  the  following  century.  About  1590, 
when  Ussher  was  only  ten  years  of  age,  "  his  meeting  with  some 
notes  taken  from  famous  Mr.  Perkins  (his  works  being  not  then 
printed),  concerning  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's  Day,  proved, 
through  God's  blessing,  so  effectual  with  him  that  ever  after  he 
was  the  more  strict  in  the  observing  of  it."1  The  discourses  of 
Greenham  seem  to  have  been  turned  to  account  after  the  same 
fashion.  For  the  editor  of  his  collected  works  (1599)  informs  us 
in  the  preface,  "that  then" — the  time  of  the  author's  death, 
which  took  place  in  1591 — "his  works  were  dispersed  far  and 
near  ;"  and  states,  at  p.  228  of  the  volume,  that  his  Treatise  of 
the  Sabboth  "  hath  been  in  many  hands  for  many  years,  and  hath 
given  light  to  some."  Eichard  Greenham  (1531-1591),  M.A., 
minister  for  twenty-two  years  at  Dry  Drayton,  and  for  two  years 
at  Christ  Church,  London,  where  he  died  of  the  plague,  and  AVilliam 
Perkins  (1558-1602),  for  the  most  part  of  his  brief  life  minister 
of  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Cambridge,  had  much  in  common. 
Alumni  arid  fellows  of  colleges  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  they 
became  distinguished  as  fervent  preachers,  laborious  ministers,  ex 
cellent  casuists,  earnest  friends  and  advocates  from  pulpit  and  press 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  Puritans  who  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Whitgift 
— the  former  suspension,  the  latter  deprivation — for  their  opinions, 
wise,  blameless,  and  pious  men,  and  instruments  of  largely  promot 
ing  the  interests  of  evangelical  truth  and  practical  religion.  Among 
the  circumstances  which  peculiarly  marked  the  course  of  Perkins 
were  his  extraordinary  conversion,2  his  successful  zeal  for  the 
good  of  the  prisoners  in  Cambridge  jail,  the  European  fame  of 
his  writings,  written  in  elegant  Latin,  or  translated  into  five  of 
the  continental  languages,  and  the  credit,  not  only  of  a  style  pro 
nounced  the  best  of  his  own  and  the  following  age,  but  of  being 
the  first,  according  to  Mosheim,  to  give  form,  accuracy,  and  pre 
cision  to  the  master- science  which  has  virtue,  life,  and  manners, 

1  Clark's  Collection  of  Lives  (1662),  p.  191. 

3  While  leading  a  profane  and  dissolute  life  at  college,  he  heard  a  woman  say  to  a 
troublesome  child,  '  Hold  your  peace,  or  I  will  give  you  to  drunken  Perkins,  yonder1 
The  thought  that  his  name  was  a  bye-word  for  an  intemperate  man  we&t  to  his  liewt, 
•nd  TTSB  th«  means  of  rousing  him  to  break  the  fetters  of  vica 


66  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

for  its  object.1  The  end  of  Perkins,  as  of-  Greenham,  was  peace. 
The  death  of  the  latter  was  "  most  comfortable  and  happy."  The 
former  expired  crying  for  mercy  and  forgiveness,  and  thus  again 
blessed  that  great  and  good  archbishop,  who,  having  often  wished 
that  he  might  die  the  death  of  holy  Mr.  Perkins,  poured  out  his 
latest  breath  in  the  words,  "  Lord,  especially  forgive  my  sins  of 
omission." 

We  have  now  come  to  the  commencement  of  the  earliest  sab 
batic  contest,  entitled  to  the  name,  in  the  Christian  Church.  The 
occasion  of  this  intestine  war  was  the  publication,  in  1595,  of 
The  Doctrine  of  the  /Sabbath,  plainely  layde  forth  and  soundly 
proved,  etc.  :  by  Nicholas  Bownd,  D.D.,  a  treatise  in  which  the 
institution,  for  the  first  time  probably,  received  a  full  and  satis 
factory  consideration.  Of  the  author  little  has  been  recorded. 
Educated  at  Cambridge,  where  he  took  his  degrees,  he  became 
minister  of  Norton  in  Suffolk,  and  was  one  of  sixty,  who,  in 
1583,  were  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  sacred  functions  for 
refusing  to  subscribe  Whitgift's  three  Articles,  which  declared  : 
1.  That  the  Queen  was  supreme  head  of  the  Church  ;  2.  That 
the  Ordinal  arid  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  contained  nothing 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  ;  and,  3.  That  the  Thirty-nine  Ar 
ticles  of  the  Church  of  England  were  to  be  admitted  as  agreeable 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures.2  Besides  The  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath, 
which,  after  being  "  perused"  and  enlarged,  was  reprinted  in  1606. 
he  published  three  works,  according  to  Wood,  who  adds,  "  with 
other  things  which  I  have  not  seen."3  His  literary  labours  ap 
pear  to  have  been  all  carried  on  at  Norton,  and  to  warrant  the 

1  History  (1825),  vol.  iv.  pp.  412,  413.— Orton,  who  was  descended  from  an  elder  brother 
of  Perkins,  says,  in  1772  (Practical  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  434) :  "  His  works  arc  little  known 
in  England,  but  they  are  still  in  estimation  in  Germany."  The  three  volumes  folio  might 
be  seen  in  the  libraries  of  some  Scottish  ministers  half  a  century  ago,  and  the  writer  once 
found  them  in  the  hands  of  a  plain  though  somewhat  bein  Scotsman,  who  read  and  re 
lished  them  not  the  less  that  they  presented  the  truths  of  the  Bible  in  a  manner  some 
what  different  from  that  of  the  more  familiar  works  of  Owen  and  Boston. 

2  By  the  13th  Elizabeth,  the  subscription  of  the  clergy  was  limited  to  those  Articles 
of  the  Church  which  related  to  the  doctrines  of  faith  and  the  administiation  of  the  sa 
craments,  whereas  Whitgift's  Articles  enjoined  subscription  to  the  whole  thirty-nine, 
ana  were  otherwise  illegal  and  oppressive. 

3  The  three   works  are— The  Holy  Exercise  of  Fasting,  etc.,  in  certain   Homilies  or 
Sermons  (1604).     A  Storehouse  of  Comfort  for  the  afflicted  in  Spirit,  set  open  in  Twenty- 
on*  Sermons  (1C04) ;  and,  The  Unbelief  of  Thomas  the  Apostle,  laid  open  for  Believers, 
etc.  (1608). 


ENGLAND.  67 

presumption  that  he  had  been  permitted  to  resume  the  exercise 
of  his  ministry  there. 

Dr.  Bownd's  treatise  on  the  Sabbath  was  regarded  with  so 
much  favour  and  dislike  by  different  classes,  and  produced  so  great 
a  change  in  the  sabbatic  practice  of  Englishmen  in  his  time,  as 
to  entitle  its  doctrines  and  history  to  more  notice  than  they  have 
of  late  received. 

The  positions  which  the  writer  copiously  and  learnedly  main 
tains  from  Scripture,  the  Fathers,  and  Reformers,  are  the  follow 
ing  : — The  observation  of  the  Sabbath  is  not  a  bare  ordinance  of 
man,  or  a  merely  civil  or  ecclesiastical  constitution,  appointed 
only  for  polity,  but  an  immortal  commandment  of  Almighty  God, 
and  therefore  bindeth  men's  consciences.  The  Sabbath  was  given 
to  our  first  parents,  and  so  after  carefully  observed  both  by  them 
and  by  their  posterity. 

It  was  revived  on  Mount  Sinai  by  God's  own  voice  to  the 
Israelites,  with  a  special  note  of  remembrance,  fortified  with  more 
reasons  than  the  other  precepts,  and  particularly  applied  to  all 
sorts  of  men  by  name,  showing  how  careful  the  Lord  was,  that 
every  one  should  straitly  keep  it. 

While  the  ceremonies  of  the  law,  which  made  a  difference  be 
tween  Jew  and  Gentile,  are  taken  away  by  the  gospel,  this  com 
mandment  of  the  Sabbath  abideth  still  in  full  force  as  moral  and 
perpetual,  and  bindeth  for  ever  all  nations  and  sorts  of  men  as 
before. 

The  apostles,  by  the  direction  of  God's  Spirit,  changed  the  day 
from  the  seventh  to  the  eighth,  which  we  now  keep  in  honour  of 
Redemption,  and  which  ought  still  to  be  kept  of  all  nations  to 
the  world's  end,  because  we  can  never  have  the  like  cause  or 
direction  to  change  it. 

On  this  day  we  are  bound  straitly  to  rest  from  all  the  ordinary 
works  of  our  calling;  because  six  days  in  the  week  are  appointed 
for  them,  and  the  seventh  is  sanctified  and  separated  by  God  him 
self  from  the  others  to  another  end— the  public  service  of  God 

Much  more  ought  we  on  that  day  to  avoid  every  kind  of  law 
ful  recreations  and  pastimes,  which  are  less  necessary  than  the 
works  of  our  callings,  and  whatever  withdraws  the  heart  from 
God's  service,  because  this  law  is  spiritual,  and  binds  the  whola 


68  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

man  as  well  as  any  other  ;  most  of  all  ought  we  to  renounce  all 
such  things  as  are  not  lawful  at  any  time. l 

Works  of  necessity  and  mercy,  however,  are  excepted  from  this 
prohibition,  and  the  governors  of  the  church  and  commonwealth 
have  a  liberty  above  others  to  perform  such  works  for  the  good 
of  both,  in  which,  as  in  other  things,  their  reasons  are  not  to  be 
busily  scanned.2 

The  day  of  rest  ought  to  be  spent  altogether  in  God's  service, 
partly  in  frequenting  the  public  assemblies,  where  the  Word  of 
God  is  plainly  read  and  purely  preached,  the  sacraments  rightly 
administered,  and  prayer  made  in  a  known  tongue  to  the  edifying 
of  the  people,  and  in  attending  upon  these  things  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  ending  ;  and  partly  in  those  private  exercises  which 
prepare  for  or  promote  the  benefit  of  public  worship,  as  private 
prayer,  reading  the  Scriptures,  singing  of  psalms,  meditating  or 
conferring  about  the  word  and  works  of  God,  and  this  either 
personally  in  the  family  or  with  neighbours,  either  in  houses  or 
abroad  in  the  fields. 

Masters,  magistrates,  and  princes,  ought  especially  to  provide 
in  their  respective  spheres  for  the  observation  of  this  command 
ment,  and  to  compel  those  under  their  charge  to  at  least  an  out 
ward  rest  and  its  sanctification,  as  well  as  to  the  keeping  of  auy 
other  commandment,  such  as  those  against  murder,  adultery, 
theft,  and  such  like. 

We  must  aim  at  perfection  here,  not  measuring  our  duty  by 
our  inability,  but  by  the  perfect  reed  of  the  temple,  and,  repent 
ing  of  our  failures,  crave  pardon  for  Christ's  sake. 

1  "  In  determining  that  we  must  give  over  then  our  ordinary  recreations,  we  do  not 
conclude  that  they  should  altogether  be  left,  but  advise  men  rather  to  take  them  at 
some  other  time ;  and  we  do  exhort  them  that  be  in  government,  to  give  some  time 
to  their  children  and  servants  for  their  honest  recreation  on  other  days,  that  they  be 
not  driven  to  take  it  upon  this,  seeing  they  can  no  more  want  it  altogether  than  their 
ordinary  food.  And  as  we  have  seen  that  they  are  bound  to  give  them  some  time  to 
work  for  themselves,  unless  they  will  by  their  overmuch  straitness  compel  them  to  it 
upon  the  day  of  rest ;  so  must  they  spare  also  some  few  hours  for  their  refreshing  UOAT 
and  then,  seeing  they  can  no  more  want  the  one  than  the  other."— Pp.  271,  272. 

a  "  Necessitas  non  habet  ferias." — This  "  is  to  be  considered  of  us  the  rather,  lest 
any  through  a  gross  superstition  should  fall  into  the  extremity  of  the  Jews  of  whom 
it  is  written,  and  namely,  of  certain  heretics  called  Essaei,  that  they  are  over  pre 
cise  iu  this  rest,  so  that  they  dress  all  their  jncat  the  'lay  before,  and  kindle  no  fire,"" 
«ta.~- P.  228. 


ENGLAND.  69 

The  treatise  on  its  first  appearance,  produced  an  extraordinary 
sensation,  which  Fuller  thus  describes  : — "  About  this  time 
(1595),  throughout  England  began  the  more  solemn  and  strict 
observation  of  the  Lord's  Day  (hereafter,  both  in  writing  and 
preaching,  commonly  called  the  Sabbath),  occasioned  by  a  book 
this  year  set  forth  by  one  P.  (sic)  Bound,  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
(and  enlarged  with  additions,  anno  1G06)."1  After  giving  an 
abstract  of  its  doctrines,  the  historian  proceeds  to  say  : — "  It  is 
almost  incredible  how  taking  this  doctrine  was,  partly  because  of 
its  own  purity,  and  partly  for  the  eminent  piety  of  such  persons 
as  maintained  it,  so  that  the  Lord's  Day,  especially  in  corpora 
tions,  began  to  be  precisely  kept,  people  becoming  a  law  to 
themselves,  forbearing  such  sports  as  yet  by  statute  permitted  ; 
yea,  many  rejoicing  at  their  own  restraint  herein.  On  this  day 
the  stoutest  fencer  laid  down  the  buckler,  the  most  skilful 
archer  unbent  his  bow,  counting  all  shooting  besides  the  mark  ; 
May-games,  and  Morish-dances  grew  out  of  request,  and  good 
reason  that  bells  should  be  silenced  from  gingling  about  men's 
legs,  if  their  very  ringing  in  steeples  were  adjudged  unlawful  ;2 
some  of  them  were  ashamed  of  their  former  pleasures,  like  chil 
dren  which,  grown  bigger,  blushing  themselves  out  of  their 
rattles  and  whistles.  Others  forbear  them  for  fear  of  their 
superiors,  and  many  left  them  off  out  of  a  politic  compliance, 
lest  otherwise  they  should  be  accounted  licentious. 

"  Yet  learned  men  were  much  divided  in  their  judgments  about 
these  Sabbatarian  doctrines.  Some  embraced  them  as  ancient 
truths  consonant  to  Scripture,  long  disused  and  neglected,  now 
seasonably  revived  for  the  increase  of  piety.  Others  conceived 
them  grounded  on  a  wrong  bottom,  but  because  they  tended  to 
the  manifest  advance  of  religion,  it  was  pity  to  oppose  them, 
seeing  none  have  just  reason  to  complain  being  deceived  into 
their  own  good.  But  a  third  sort  flatly  fell  out  with  these  posi 
tions,  as  galling  men's  necks  with  a  Jewish  yoke,  against  the 

1  "  Sabathum  Veteris  et  Novi  Testamenti,  or  the  True  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  before  and 
under  the  Law,  and  in  the  time  of  the.  Gospel,  &c." 

2  Fuller  exaggerates  the  claims  of  Bownd  to  originality.     The  word  "  Sabbath  "  had 
been  used  by  the  Fathers,  in  the  Homilies,  by  Becon,  Babington,  Perkins,  and  other*. 
Among  the  injunctions  of  Edward  vi.  was  the  following  :— "  All  ringing  of  bells,  MV« 
one,  shall  *-e  utterly  forborn." 

4* 


70  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

liberty  of  Christians  :  that  Christ,  as  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  had 
removed  the  rigour  thereof,  and  allowed  men  lawful  recreations  : 
that  the  doctrine  put  an  unequal  lustre  on  the  Sunday,  on  set 
purpose  to  eclipse  all  other  holy  days  to  the  derogation  of  the 
Church  :  that  the  strict  observance  was  set  up  out  of  faction  to 
be  a  character  of  difference,  to  brand  all  for  libertines  who  did 
not  entertain  it." 

For  a  time  no  attempt  was  made  to  put  down  this  stirring 
publication,  whether  by  argument  or  by  authority.  "  For  some 
years  together,"  continues  Fuller,  "  Dr.  Bound  atone  carried  the 
garland  away,  none  offering  openly  to  oppose,  and  not  so  much  as 
a  feather  of  a  quill  in  print  did  wag  against  him.  Yet,  as  he  in 
his  second  edition  observeth,  many,  both  in  their  preachings,  writ 
ings,  and  disputations,  did  concur  with  him  in  that  argument." 
Among  the  "  many "  were  Babington,  Perkins,  and  Dod.  An 
edition  of  the  works  of  Babington  appeared  in  1596.  Perkins 
reprinted  his  Golden  Chain  in  1597.  Both  writers  continued 
to  maintain  the  sabbatic  views  which,  before  the  publication  of 
Bownd's  treatise,  they  had  given  to  the  world,  and  which  were  in 
substance  the  same  as  his.  An  Exposition  of  the  Ten  Command 
ments  by  John  Dod,  minister  at  Hanwell,  Oxfordshire,  aided,  as  he 
was  in  other  works,  by  Robert  Cleaver,  minister  at  Drayton  in  the 
same  county,  belonged  to  the  year  1604,  and  treated  copiously 
and  practically  of  the  Sabbath.  The  exposition  is  simple,  lively, 
pithy,  and  worthy  of  both,  Cleaver  having  been  "  a  most  pious, 
excellent,  and  useful  preacher,"  and  Dod,  not  only  "  a  distinguished 
scholar,"  but  "  a  most  worthy  man,"  of  whom  Ussher  said,  "  What 
ever  some  say  of  Mr.  Dod's  strictness,  and  scrupling  some  ceremo 
nies,  I  desire,  that  when  I  die,  my  soul  may  rest  with  his."  In 
the  second  edition  of  his  work,  Bownd  refers  to  a  writer  who  had 
published  a  digest  of  the  first  edition.  This,  or  An  Abstract  of 
the  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath,  by  William  Burton,  had  preceded  the 
volume  in  which  it  is  referred  to,  only  by  some  months,  as  they 
both  came  out  in  1606.  It  appears  that  "disputations"  had 
taken  place,  in  which  the  doctrine  of  Bownd  was  successfully  ad 
vocated.  One  of  these  is  repeatedly  mentioned  by  writers  of  the 
time.  Heylyn  evidently  felt  sore  when  he  thus  recorded  it  : — 
"In  the  year  1603,  at  the  commencement  held  in  Cambridge, 


ENGLAND.  71 

this  thesis  or  proposition,  Dies  Dominicus  nititur  Verbo  Dei,  was 
publicly  maintained  by  a  doctor  there,  and  by  the  then  Vice-Chan 
cellor  so  determined  ;  neither  the  following  doctors  there,  or  any  in 
the  other  University,  that  I  can  hear  of,  did  ever  put  up  any  anti 
thesis  in  opposition  thereunto."1 

Three  supporters  of  Dr.  Bownd's  doctrine  are  particularly  alluded 
to  by  him  in  the  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  his  work.  After 
informing  us  that  many  concurred  with  him  in  his  argument,  he 
says,  "  And  three  several  profitable  treatises  were  within  a  few 
years  successively  written  by  three  godly  learned  ministers."  One 
of  these  treatises,  according  to  Fuller,  was  "made  by  Greenham." 
Another  was  probably  the  plain  and  practical  Doctrine  of  the  Sab 
bath,  handled  in  Four  Severall  Bookes  or  Treatises,  by  George 
Widley,  A.M.,  Minister  of  the  Word  of  God  in  Portsmouth," 
which  maintains  the  perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath,  as  well  as  the  sanc 
tity  of  the  entire  day,  and  was  published  in  1604.  We  find  no 
third  publication  that  fully  answers  Bownd's  description. 

The  treatise  of  Greenham  was  extensively  read,  and  productive 
of  much  good.  It  had,  as  already  stated,  been  in  many  hands 
for  many  years  before  it  appeared  among  his  collected  works,  and 
these  passed  through  five  editions  in  the  course  of  1599-1612, 
two  of  them  in  the  first  of  those  years.  "  No  book,"  says  Fuller, 
<{  made  a  greater  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  than 
his  Treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  which  greatly  promoted  the  observ 
ance  of  it  through  the  nation."  Partaking  of  the  qualities  that 
distinguish  all  the  writings  of  its  author,  the  comprehensive  brevity 
with  which  each  topic  is  treated,  great  simplicity  of  language 
clothing  not  unfrequently  original  and  striking  thoughts,  and  a 
spirit  of  unaffected  piety  and  benevolence,  it  presents,  within  some 
ninety  small  pages,  the  very  pith  of  the  subject  as  regards  its  doc 
trine,  polemics,  and  duties.  It  has  almost  nothing  of  the  patristic 
learning  which  appears  in  the  volume  of  Dr.  Bownd,  as,  except 
in  one  or  two  instances,  it  derives  the  support  of  its  positions  ex 
clusively  from  the  Scriptures.  Nor  does  it  exhibit  the  same  power 
of  reasoning  as  that  writer  has  wielded.  But  it  surpasses  the 
volume  now  mentioned,  as  appears  to  us,  in  its  more  faultless  ex 
position  of  the  sabbatic  institution. 

i  History  of  tin  Sabbath,  part  ii.  p.  261. 


72  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

There  is  scope  for  persons  of  all  varieties  of  attainment  to  put 
forth  their  efforts  in  defence  or  recommendation  of  that  institution. 
But  if  any  class  be  more  entitled  and  qualified  than  another  to 
handle  the  subject,  it  must  be  the  men  who,  to  superior  mental 
talents  and  acquirements,  add  a  spirit  imbued  with  the  heavenly 
tastes  and  desires  of  the  Christian.  Such  a  man  was  Greenham. 
"He  was,"  says  Fuller,  "a  strict  observer  of  the  Lord's  Day." 
It  is  also  recorded  of  him,  that  "  he  loved  the  habitation  of  God's 
house,"  repairing  to  it  however  inferior  might  be  the  abilities  of 
the  preacher,  and  happy,  like  Chalmers,  to  hear  those  "  intrinsic 
ally  glorious  and  imperishable  truths  of  the  Christian  system, 
which,"  as  has  been  beautifully  said,  "language  cannot  embellish, 
nor  the  little  arts  of  composition  improve."  It  is  such  men  alone 
who  can  fully  perceive  the  excellence  and  value  of  the  Sabbath. 
And  the  words  of  such  come  with  power.  In  some  measure,  like 
their  Master,  they  might  say,  "  We  speak  that  we  do  know,  and 
testify  that  we  have  seen."  Their  united  experience  is  an  argu 
ment  for  the  institution  which  admits  of  no  answer.  Their  mani 
fest  character — an  epistle  which  may  be  seen  and  read  of  all  men 
— is  another.  Let  the  life  of  Greenham  show  that  a  strictly  ob 
served  Lord's  Day,  though  repulsive  to  the  selfish  and  the  self- 
indulgent,  tends  to  encourage,  not  sourness,  gloom,  or  unhappiness, 
but  decision  with  meekness,  labour  with  its  dignity,  beneficence 
with  its  pure  pleasures,  and  faith  in  Christ  with  its  safety  and 
hope — the  whole  making  a  man  good,  useful,  and  blessed.  Bear 
ing  in  mind  the  particulars  of  that  life  already  mentioned,  let  us 
consider  some  others.  Every  morning  found  that  ardent  man  in 
Ids  study  at  four  o'clock.  The  preaching  of  six  sermons,  with  two 
catechetical  exercises,  formed  his  ministerial  labour  in  public  each 
week,  the  services  of  the  work-days  being,  for  the  convenience  of 
his  people,  in  the  mornings.  Much  of  his  time  and  strength  was 
expended  in  giving  religious  instruction  and  counsel  in  private  to 
the  multitudes  who  resorted  to  him  with  their  difficulties  and 
doubts,  and  in  unwearied  applications  for  stipends  and  exhibitions 
for  the  assistance  of  poor  scholars  at  the  University.1  Rejecting 
every  lucrative  preferment  offered  to  him,  he  yet  abounded  in  acts 
of  liberality  to  the  needy  and  distressed,  showing  a  pity  for  the 

»  Ruasell's  Memorial*  <f  Th^ma-s  Fuller,  D.D.,  p.  14. 


ENGLAND.  73 

suffering,  which,  bringing  by  its  resistless  impulses  himself  and 
his  family  into  frequent  straits,  it  is  far  easier  to  condemn  for  im 
prudent  excess,  than  to  admire  for  its  rare  intensity.  Nothing 
could  make  him  subscribe  to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  which  the 
prelates  in  his  day  so  unjustly  enforced,  as  they  were  in  his  view 
unsauctioned  by  Scripture,  productive  of  much  superstition,  and 
hindrances  to  the  success  of  the  gospel ;  but  while  he  "  loved  the 
truth,"  he  loved  also  "  the  peace,"  and  combined  the  suaviter  with 
thefortiter — the  meekness  of  wisdom  with  inflexibility  of  prin 
ciple  and  purpose.  When  called  before  the  bishop,  Dr.  Cox,  upon 
a  complaint  of  his  nonconformity,  and  asked,  Whether  the  blame 
of  the  schism  in  the  Church  was  attachable  to  the  conformists  or 
nonconformists  1  he  replied,  "  that  it  might  be  attached  to  either 
or  to  ndtlier.  For  if  both  parties  loved  each  other  as  they  ought, 
and  did  acts  of  kindness  for  each  other,  thereby  maintaining  love 
and  concord,  the  blame  would  be  on  neither  side  ;  but  which 
party  soever  made  the  rent,  the  charge  of  schism  belonged  to  them." 
The  bishop  is  said  to  have  been  so  well  satisfied  with  this  answer, 
that  he  dismissed  him  in  peace.1  Greenhara  was  much  esteemed 
and  reverenced  in  his  lifetime  by  the  wise  and  good  of  various 
ranks.  He  died  lamented.  Bishops  Hall  and  Wilkins,  and  others, 
have  expressed  high  estimates  of  his  works.  From  a  number  of 
tributes  to  his  worth  as  a  man  and  a  writer,  which  appear  in  his 
collected  works,  we  may  be  permitted,  if  not  for  their  poetical 
merit,  yet  on  account  of  their  subject  and  their  author,  to  present 
the  following  lines  : — 

Whiles  Greenham  writeth  of  the  Sabboth's  rest, 
His  soul  enjoys  that  which  his  pen  exprest : 
His  work  enjoys  not  what  itsel'f  doth  say, 
For  it  shall  never  find  one  resting  day ; 
A  thousand  hands  shall  toss  each  page  and  line, 
Which  shaU  be  scanned  by  a  thousand  eyne. 
That  Sabboth's  rest,  or  this  Sabboth's  unrest, 
Hard  is  to  say  whether  is  the  happiest. — I.  HALL.* 

i  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  i.  pp.  416,  417.  To  this  work,  with  Fuller's  Ch.  Hist.,  and 
Greenham's  Works  (1599),  we  are  indebted  for  most  of  the  particulars  relative  to  Green- 
ham,  in  this  and  preceding  pages. 

9  Fuller,  in  citing  the  lines,  says,  "  as  one  (then  a  great  wit  in  the  University,  now  a 
grave  wisdom  in  our  Church)  hath  ingeniously  expressed."  The  I.  Hall  must  hnv« 


74  SKKTt'HKS   «>K    9ABBA.TK!   (  ONTKoY  KKSTKS. 

Thus  far,  and  even  down  to  the  year  1005,  the  argument  is 
all  en  one  .side,  and  not,  till  1,V.)9  was  any  opposition  publicly 
made  to  the  views  of  Dr.  Bowml.  In  that,  year,  however,  his 
treatise,  according  to  Thomas  Rogers  of  Horningcr,  or  Horning- 
nheath,  \vas  called  in.  Rogers  himself,  not  long  before  a  cashiered 
Puritan,  confesses,  and  glories  in  the  fact,  that  he  turned  Queen's 
evidence  against  his  former  friend.  "It  is  a  comfort  unto  my 
Noul,"  he  says,  in  addressing  Archbishop  Bancroft,  "and  will  be 
(ill  my  dying  hour,  (hat.  1  have  been  the  man  and  the  means  that 
i he.  Sabbatarian  errors  and  impieties  are  brought  into  light  and 
knowledge  of  the  State,  whereby  whatsoever  else,  sure  I  am,  this 
good  hath  ensued,  namely,  that  the  said  books  of  the  Sabbath  .... 
hath  been  both  called  in,  and  forbidden  any  more  to  be  printed 
and  made  common.  Your  Grace's  predecessor,  Archbishop  White- 
gift,  by  his  letters,  and  ollicers  at  synods,  and  visitations,  Ann.  99, 
did  the  one  ;  and  Sir, John  Tojihani,  Lord  Chief-Justice  of  England, 
at  Burie  S  Kdmonds,  in  Suffolk,  Ann.  1600,  did  the  other."1 
Dr.  Twisse.  questions  these  allegations,  ;'s  there  was  no  evidence 
of  their  truth  but  the  word  of  Rogers,  and  as,  in  the  year  after 
they  were  published,  Willet's  Commentary  on  Genesis  appeared, 
dedicated  to  King  James  and  to  Kaneroff.  under  whose  auspices 
it  was  undertaken,  and  highly  commending  as  well  as  fully  adopt 
ing  the  sentiments  of  I5ownd.~  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  in 
the  second  edition  of  the  book  to  imply  the  alleged  treatment 
of  the  first,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  author  writes  of  the 
Chief-Justice  appears  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  representation 
of  Rogers.  He  mentions  "  the  very  rare  and  honourable  example" 
of  that  individual,  in  "resting  for  the  most  part  on  the  Sabbath 
in  his  cireuit  journeys,"  which  he  does  not  utter  in  flattery,  "see 
ing  that  it  is  like  that  these  shall  never  come  into  his  hands  and 
eyes;"  ami  adds,  that  he  "  travaileth  so  much  the  more  early 
and  late,  and  takcth  up  part  of  the  night,  that  by  extraordinary 
labouring  upon  other  daies,  hee  might  redeem  the  time  to  rest 
upon  the  Sabbath."3  And  yet  both  Heylyn  and  Fuller  credit  the 

txvu  .loscnh  Hall,  ufi.-nvnnls  llu<  <vl<>l>raf<>il  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  author  of  the 
"Contemplations."  -  r/i.  Hist.  vol.  i\.  j».  -J-JO. 

*  Preface,  sort,  -j;i  (written  "the  11  of  March  H>07  "),  k  CuMoZi'c  Doctrine  of  (he  Church 
tf  England,  lt>"\  -  Mamlity  of  the  Foit.-ih  i.'"in»^ndment,  pp.  164-106. 

»  Bound's  Kribatitm  (2ii  edit.  if.Ot'O.  i>.  9SL 


75 

statement  of  lingers,  the  former  acknowledging  that,  the  irv:isures 
of  Whttgift  and  1'opham  were  "  good  remedies,  had  they  been 
soone  inough  applied,"  but  lamenting  "  that  they  were  not  so  good 
as  those  which  formerly  were  applied  to  Thacker  and  his  fellow, 
in  the  aforesaid  townc  of  JJuric,  for  publishing  the  bookes  of 
Urowne  against  the  service  of  the  Church."1  Nor  do  we  find 
that  Neal,  or  any  other  writer,  vindicates,  or  even  notices,  the 
doubts  of  Twisse.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  confessing  to  his 
having  called  the  attention  of  tho  authorities  to  what  he  desig 
nates  "  Sabbath  speculations,"  Rogers  asserted  for  himself  the 
unenviable  distinction  of  being  both  the  first  of  professed  Chris- 
tians  to  employ  measures  of  violence  against  the  friends  of  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  the  originator,  Bownd  being  only  the  occasion,  of 
the  earliest  sabbatic  controversy  within  the  pale  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

We  have  referred  the  commencement  of  the  dialectic  controversy 
to  A.D.  1605,  because,  though  it  was  not  till  1607  that  a  blow 
of  this  kind  was  struck  with  any  effect  against  the  institution,  the 
former  year  was  the  date  of  the  first  anti-sabbatical  publication. 
This  was  a  treatise,2  dedicated  to  King  James,  which  maintained 
that  the  Sabbath  is  partly  ceremonial  and  partly  moral — that  it 
was  not  of  primaeval  origin — that  the  Church  was  led  by  certain 
causes  and  reasons  to  substitute  the  first  day  of  the  week  in  place 
of  the  seventh  as  a  Sabbath — that  all  days  in  Christian  times  are 
not  Sabbath  days,  and  that  the  Sabbath  should  be  sacredly  ob 
served  in  rest  of  body  arid  mind,  and  in  doing  good,  the  whole 
suffused  with  joy  and  the  pleasures  of  music  and  sports.  Although 
he  turns  his  weapons  against  the  Puritans  under  the  general  de 
signation  of  Reformer.-!,  the  author  condescends  to  mention  tho 
name  of  no  previous  writer  of  his  time,  and  he  himself  has  been 
very  seldom  referred  to  by  his  successors.  Rivet  bestows  two  or 
three  remarks  on  his  views,  and  Heylyn,  commending  "  one  M. 
Loe  of  the  Church  of  Exeter,"  as  alone  "  declaring  himself  to  be 
of  different  judgment  from"  the  Sabbatarians,  and  as  ''laying 
iowiie,  indeed,  the  truest  and  most  justifiable  doctrine  of  the  Sab- 

1  History  of  the  Sabbath,  part  ii.  p.  '1'A. 

2  Efflgiatio  Vcri  Sabbathitimi.     Authore  Roberto  Loeo,  Exoniensis  Kcolesia?  Theuo 
:*rio.  4to,  Lovl.  1005. 


76  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

bath  of  any  \vriter  in  that  time,  *  complains  that  the  treatise, 
"  being  written  in  the  Latine  tongue,  came  not  to  the  people's 
hands,  many  of  those  which  understood  it  never  meaning  to  let 
the  people  know  the  contents  thereof."  *  A  failure  as  to  popular 
effect,  the  work  was  not  lost  upon  the  learned  King  and  Laud, 
and  was  a  fitting  precursor  of  the  Book  of  Sports. 

Fuller,  "  ignoring"  Mr.  Loe,  observes,  "  The  first  that  gave  a 
check  to  the  full  speed  of  this"  (Bownd's)  "  doctrine,  was  Thomas 
Rogers  of  Horninger,  in  Suffolk,  in  his  preface  to  the  Book  of 
Articles."  Rogers  had  published  several  editions  of  his  Exposi 
tion  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  from  1579  downwards.  In  1607, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  wrote  the  Preface  to  which  Fuller  refers,  and 
it  appears  in  additions  of  the  Exposition  printed  subsequently  to 
that  year.  In  this  Preface  he  made  his  first  attempt,  as  a  disput 
ant,  to  controvert  the  doctrine  which,  in  the  capacity  of  informer, 
he  had  already  fruitlessly  sought  to  extirpate.  In  the  Effigiatio 
there  is  argument,  in  "  the  Preface"  there  is  none.  We  wonder 
what  there  was  in  the  latter  to  "  check  the  speed"  of  the  opposite 
doctrine,  till  we  recollect  that  strong  assertion  stands  frequently 
with  certain  minds. for  proof.  A  few  words  may  suffice  to  tell 
the  amount  of  what  Rogers  has  to  advance  against  the  Puritans, 
or  brethren,  as  he  terms  them,  on  the  subject  of  their  "  Sabbata 
rian  errors  and  impieties."  Discomfited  in  the  matter  of  the  cere 
monies,  they  adopted  the  stratagem  of  holding  up  the  Sabbath  at 
the  expense  of  the  holidays,  whence  sprang  irreligion  and  every 
evil.  They  set  up  a  new  idol,  their  St.  Sabbath  (erst  in  the  days 
of  Popish  blindness,  St.  Sunday)  in  the  midst  and  minds  of  God's 
people,  thereby  introducing  a  worse  than  either  Jewish  or  Popish 
superstition  into  the  land.  Their  insisting  on  a  rigid  observance 
of  the  Lord's  Day  by  all  classes,  if  they  would  not  incur  the 
penalties  of  damnation,  led  to  such  heretical  and  horrible  state 
ments,  as  that  to  throw  a  bowl  on  the  Sabbath-day  is  as  great  a 
sin  as  to  kill  a  man,  or  commit  adultery  ;  and  that  to  make  a 
feast  or  wedding- dinner  on  the  Lord's  Day  is  as  great  a  sin  as  for 
a  father  to  take  a  knife  and  cut  his  child's  throat  ;  and  that 
in  the  Sabbatum  "  are  very  many  things  to  this  effect."  The 
reply  of  Dr.  Twisse  to  these  accusations,  advanced  by  Rogers,  and 

i  Hist,  of  the  Sabbath,  part  ii.  p   261. 


ENGLAND.  7  7 

endorsee!  by  Heylyn,  was  the  following  :  First,  the  sabbatic  doc 
trine  of  Dr.  Bownd  was  that  of  Perkins,  Bishop  Babington,  Bishop 
Andrewes,  Bishop  Lake,  Dr.  Willet,  as  is  shown  by  their  own 
words.  Dr.  Willet  is  quoted  as  taking  up  the  sentiments  of 
Bownd,  establishing  them  one  by  one  from  Scripture,  and  adding, 
"  But  these  allegations  are  here  superfluous,  seeing  there  is  a 
learned  treatise  of  the  Sabbath  already  published  of  this  argument, 
which  containeth  a  most  sound  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath,  as  it  is 
said  in  the  former  positions,  which  shall  be  able  to  abide  the  triall 
of  the  Word  of  God,  and  stand  warranted  thereby,  when  other 
humane  fantasies  shall  vanish  ;  howsoever,  some  in  their  heat  and 
intemperance  are  not  afraid  to  call  them  sabbatariorum  errores, 
yea,  hereticall  assertions,  a  new  Jubilee,  St.  Sabbath,  more  than 
either  Jewish  or  Popish  institution  ;  God  grant  it  be  not  layd  to 
their  charge  that  so  speake  or  write,  and  God  give  them  a'  better 
minde."1  "  Now  I  have  made  it  manifest,"  says  Twisse,  "  that 
the  doctrines  which  he  picks  out  of  Dr.  Bownd,  and  stiles  Sabba 
tarian  doctrines,  are  the  doctrines  of  Dr.  Andrewes,  afterwards 
bishop  of  Winchester  ;  I  could  show  them  to  be  the  doctrines  of 
many  other  worthy  prelates  that  have  been  of  this  kingdome  ;  and 
it  may  be,  that  if  the  votes  of  the  bishops  of  this  kingdom  were 
taken,  the  major  part  would  concurre  with  us,  as  touching  the 
doctrine  of  the  Sabbath,  rather  than  against  us."2  This  answer 
was  important,  not  because  names  can  prove  a  doctrine  to  be  true, 
but  because  in  the  present  instance  they  set  aside  the  silly  though 
plausible  argument,  founded  on  the  puritanic  character  of  the  men 
who  had  stood  up  for  the  Sabbath,  and  on  the  alleged  singularity 
of  their  opinions.  Second,  the  allegation  as  to  the  "  heretical 
and  horrible"  assertions  uttered  by  the  supporters  of  Bownd's 
doctrine,  referring  as  it  does  only  to  a  few  cases,  could  prove  no 
thing  even  if  true,  and  was  itself  without  proof.  Dr.  Twisse  says, 
generally,  of  such  charges,  which  it  became  the  fashion  of  anti- 
sabbatists  to  take  up  without  inquiry,  and  to  trumpet  on  all  occa 
sions,  "  As  long  as  the  world  lasts,  we  shall  be  exercised  with  wild 
wits,  and  so  no  doubt  we  shall  with  tale-tellers  too  ;"  and,  ex 
amining  those  charges  more  particularly,  he  shows  that  the  alleged 

I  Comment,  on  Gen.  ii.  3,  in  Twisse's  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Comma-idir^nt,  p.  166. 
»  Twigse,  p.  164. 


78  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

expressions  are,  in  two  instances,  accompanied  by  no  particulars 
of  person  or  place,  the  imputations  having  no  better  authority 
than  the  accuser's  own  word  ;  and  that  in  cases  where  the  parti 
culars  were  specified,  either  the  evidence  was  wanting,  or  the  false 
hood  of  the  accusation  was  exposed.  While  it  is  possible,  without 
at  all  affecting  the  doctrine  of  the  Puritans,  that  an  individual  or 
two  might  use  improper  expressions  in  its  illustration,  it  is  certain 
that  no  such  impropriety  was  proved,  and  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  all  the  charges  were,  like  the  following  one  preferred  against 
the  Doctor  himself,  wretched  fabrications  in  a  kindred  cause  : 
"  Lately,  it  hath  beene  brought  unto  mee,  that  one  hath  beene 
heard  to  lay  to  my  charge  behind  my  backe,  that  I  should  say, 
David  sinned  more  in  dancing  about  the  Arke,  than  either  in 
deflo wring  Bathshebath,  or  killing  Uriah  ;  though  it  is  such  a 
comparison  that  never  entered  into  my  thoughts,  how  much  lesse 
to  passe  so  prodigious  a  judgment  upon  the  comparison."1  Third, 
the  averment,  that  "  many  things  to  this  effect  he  had  read  before 
in  the  Sabbath  doctrine,  printed  at  London  for  I.  Porter,  and  T. 
Man  (An.  95),"  was,  like  the  other  charges,  unsubstantiated. 
Twisse  says,  "  What  this  booke  was  I  could  not  devise,  but  lately 
have  gotten  Dr.  Bownde's  book  of  the  Sabbath.  I  finde  by  com 
paring  it  well,  that  this  is  the  booke  he  girds  at.  Now  I  finde 
nothing  in  him  to  this  effect,  though  I  have  gone  over  most  of  the 
first  booke,  and  in  the  Index  doe  not  finde  anything  that  can  give 
me  probability  in  the  second  booke,  tending  to  any  such  effect  : 
and  I  wonder  he  spared  to  quote  the  place  where  such  doctrines 
are  to  be  found,  nothing  being  more  convenient  to  justifie  his 
criminations  (than  to  quote  for  it  something  that  is  to  be  scene  in 
print)  and  thereby  to  cleare  himself  from  the  suspicion  of  a  malig 
nant."  2  The  truth  is,  that  "  the  many  things  to  this  effect,  which 
he  (Ptogers)  had  read"  in  the  Sabbatum  were  not  there.3 

Dr.  Twisse  having  extracted  the  sting  of  the  only  effective  part 
of  the  Preface,  its  tale-telling,  conceived  it  superfluous,  we  pre 
sume,  to  answer  any  more  charges  against  the  friends  of  the  Sab- 

1  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  pp.  162-164.  2  Ibid.  p.  163. 

3  If  they  had,  we  should  have  heard  of  it  from  Heylyn,  who  repeats  from  Rogen 
"  the  horrible"  expressions  con  amore,  but  neither  affirms  nor  denies  the  occurrence  of. 
"many  things  to  this  effect"  in  Bownd,  We  have  read  the  Sabbatum,  2d  edit.,  more 
than  once,  without  observing  in  t  any  such  expressions 


ENGLAND.  7  9 

bath,  founded  as  these  charges  were  on  mere  authority,  and  on 
Buch  an  authority.  So  slight,  indeed,  appears  to  have  been  the 
impression  produced  by  the  assertions  of  Rogers,  that  it  was  not 
till  thirty-four  years  after  they  were  published,  and  when  Bishop 
White  and  Dr.  Heylyn  had,  by  their  writings,  given  them  cur 
rency  and  importance,  that  Twisse  took  notice  of  them.  Let 
Fuller  illustrate  "the  check  to  the  full  speed  of  Bound's  doctrine" 
which  lie  ascribes  to  the  Preface,  and  show  that  the  author  in 
evoking  the  magistrate's  sword  from  its  sheath,  as  well  as  "  wag 
ging  the  feather  of  a  quill,"  had  increased  the  momentum.  "  But 
though  minister  and  magistrate  jointly  endeavoured  to  suppress 
Bound's  book,  with  the  doctrine  therein  contained,  yet  all  their 
care  did  but  for  the  present  make  the  Sunday  set  in  a  cloud,  to 
arise  soon  after  in  more  brightness.  As  for  the  archbishop,  his 
known  opposition  to  the  proceedings  of  the  brethren  rendered  his 
actions  more  odious,  as  if  out  of  envy  he  had  caused  such  a  pearl 
to  be  concealed.  As  for  Judge  Popham,  though  some  conceived 
it  most  proper  for  his  place  to  punish  felonious  doctrines  (which 
robbed  the  Queen's  subjects  of  their  lawful  liberty),  and  to  behold 
them  branded  with  a  mark  of  infamy,  yet  others  accounted  him 
no  competent  judge  in  this  controversy ;  and  though  he  had  a 
dead  hand  against  offenders,  yet  these  Sabbatarian  doctrines, 
though  condemned  by  hinvtook  the  privilege  to  pardon  them 
selves,  and  were  published  more  generally  than  before.  The  price 
of  the  doctor's  book  began  to  be  doubled,  as  commonly  books  are 
then  most  called  on,  when  called  in,  and  many  who  hear  not  of  them 
when  printed,  inquire  after  them  when  prohibited;  and  though  the 
book's  wings  were  clipped  from  flying  abroad  in  print,  it  ran  the 
faster  from  friend  to  friend  in  transcribed  copies ;  and  the  Lord's 
day,  in  most  places,  was  most  strictly  observed.  The  more  liberty 
people  were  offered  the  less  they  used  it,  refusing  to  take  the  free 
dom  authority  tendered  them  ;  for  the  vulgar  sort  have  the  actions 
of  their  superiors  in  constant  jealousy,  suspecting  each  gate  of  their 
opening  to  be  a  trap,  every  hole  of  their  digging  to  be  a  mine, 
wherein  some  secret  train  is  covertly  conveyed,  to  the  blowing  up 
of  the  subject's  liberty,  which  made  them  almost  afraid  of  the 
recreations  of  the  Lord's  day  allowed  them  ;  and  seeing  it  is  the 
greatest  pleasure  to  the  mind  of  man  to  do  what  he  pleaseth,  it 


80  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

was  sport  for  them  to  refrain  from  sports,  whilst  the  forbearance 
was  in  themselves  voluntary,  arbitrary,  and  elective — not  imposed 
upon  them.  Yea,  six  years  after,  Bound's  book  came  forth  with 
enlargements,  publicly  sold  ;  and  scarce  any  comment,  catechism, 
or  controversy  was  set  forth  by  the  stricter  divines,  wherein  this 
doctrine  (the  diamond  in  this  ring)  was  not  largely  pressed  and 
proved  ;  so  that,  as  one  saith,  f  the  Sabbath  itself  had  no  rest  ; ' 
for  now  all  strange  and  unknown  writers,  without  further  exami 
nation,  passed  for  friends  and  favourites  of  the  Presbyterian  party, 
who  could  give  the  word,  and  had  anything  in  their  treatise  tend 
ing  to  the  strict  observation  of  the  Lord's  day." l 

Thus,  "  minister  and  magistrate"  became  the  patrons  of  Dr. 
Bownd,  and  the  best  publishers  of  his  volume,  persecuting  both 
into  a  notice  and  influence  which  they  might  never  otherwise  have 
obtained.  And  the  remarkable  success  of  that  volume,  which 
received  not  merely  in  several  instances  the  laudari  a  laudato — 
the  plaudits  of  the  celebrated,  but  the  approbation  of  many  wise 
and  good  men  unknown  to  fame,  whicli  stimulated  and  enlightened 
the  zeal  of  writers  and  preachers  on  its  great  subject,  and  which 
effected  an  extensive  improvement  in  the  religious  character  of  the 
nation,  was  a  gratifying  recompense  to  its  author  for  the  reproach 
and  opposition  of  a  few,  and  for  the  labour  and  time  expended  on 
its  composition.2 

Nor  has  the  injury  done  to  his  posthumous  reputation  by  such 
authors  as  Heylyn,  and  Collier,  who  attempted  with  too  much 
effect  to  identify  his  name  with  all  that  is  stern  and  repulsive 
in  sabbatic  doctrine  and  practice,  been  without  reparation.  That 
the  only  consistent,  practical,  and  scriptural  theory  of  the  in 
stitution  still  prevails  among  the  most  moral  and  enterprising 
classes  of  England,  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  impulse  ori 
ginally  communicated  by  his  writings,  is  a  noble  tribute  to  his 
memory.  And  other  tributes  have  been  paid  in  occasional  vindi 
cations  of  his  treatise  against  unfounded  objections,  and  more 
frequently  in  the  advocacy  of  similar  views,  by  able  men.  We 

1  Fuller's  Church  History  (1845),  vol.  v.  pp.  217-219. 

2  The  respect  which,  according  to  Livingstone  (Missionary  Travels,  Preface),  the  toil 
of  authorship  ought  to  inspire,  was  peculiarly  merited  by  Bownd,  as,  in  consequence 
of  the  unaccountable  disappearance  of  his  completed  manuscript,  the  preparation  for 
the  second  edition  had  to  be  repeated. 


ENGLAND.  81 

have  seen  that  Dr.  Twisse — "  the  very  learned  Twisse" — "  this 
veteran  leader,  so  \vell  trained  to  the  scholastic  field,"  as  Owen 
describes  him,  did  his  part.  "  Some  say/'  observes  the  erudite 
Leigh,  "  that  Dr.  Bound  was  the  first  who  set  on  foot  the  Sabba 
tarian  doctrines  in  the  Church  of  England — if  so,  it  was  a  great 
honour  to  him  to  be  the  first  in  so  good  a  work."  1  Thomas  Fuller, 
a  conformist,  though  not  of  the  Heylyn  school,  or  "  fierce  for 
moderation,"  has  rendered  good  and  honest  service,  by  recording 
the  tnumphs  of  the  treatise,  and  testifying  to  the  eminent  piety 
of  the  men  who  held  its  doctrines.  Another  conformist  has  lately 
corrected  one  or  two  injurious  misinterpretations  of  Bo\vnd  in 
Fuller's  History,  and  affirmed  that  the  charges  of  Rogers,  which 
that  history  recorded,  without  cither  confirmation  or  censure,  have 
no  just  application  to  the  Sabbatum,  which  he  commends  as 
"  written  in  a  truly  Christian  spirit."2  Its  author  has  been  fol 
lowed  in  his  opinions  by  Twisse,  Owen,  and  a  host  of  others.  And 
we  may  trust  that  as  the  subject  is  more  studied  and  understood, 
a  larger  measure  of  respect  and  gratitude  will  be  accorded  to  one 
of  the  boldest  and  most  successful  advocates  of  the  sabbatic  insti 
tution. 

A  work  by  Mr.  John  Sprint,  A.M.,  which  appeared  in  1607, 
calls  for  a  brief  notice.  It  consists  "of  two  parts — Propositions 
tending  to  prove  the  necessary  use  and  Divine  authority  of  the 
Lord's  day,  and  the  Practice  of  the  sacred  day  framed  after  the 
rules  of  Scripture.  The  views  of  the  author  are  coincident  with 
those  of  Bownd,  clear,  decided,  and  learnedly  maintained.  The 
practical  part  supplies  a  defect  found  in  some  treatises  on  the 
subject,  though  it  perhaps  exceeds,  like  others,  in  the  minuteness 
of  its  details.  The  son  of  Dr.  John  Sprint,  dean  of  Bristol,  Mr. 

1  System  of  Divinity,  p.  1100. 

a  Fuller's  Ch.  Hist.  (1845).  edited  by  Brewer,  vol.  v.  pp.  211-214,  217,  notes.  Fuller, 
for  example,  had  represented  Bownd  as  holding,  that  "  no  solemn  feasts  nor  wedding- 
dinners  were  to  be  made  on  the  Lord's  day,  with  permission,  notwithstanding,  of  the 
same  to  lords,  knights,  and  gentlemen  of  quality ;"  whereas  he  only  says  that  "  the 
culinary  diet  of  these  classes,  which,  in  comparison,  may  be  called  feasts,"  is  not  to  ba 
condemned,  but  exhorts  them  so  to  divide  the  duties  of  servants  as  to  admit  of  their 
attending  churches.  The  nobility  of  those  times  kept  open  table,  and  required  for 
their  large  households  corresponding  provisions.  Bownd  would  have  agreed  with  Dr. 
Paul  Mieklethwaite  thus  far,  "that  persons  of  quality,  who  rest  from  hard  labour  all 
the  week  long,  are  concerned  in  conscience  to  observe  the  Lord's  day  with  the  greatoi 
abstinence  from  recreations.  "—Fuller.  Ch,  JKist.,  voL  vi.  pp.  93,  9L 


82  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Sprint  was  educated  in  Christ's  Church,  Oxford,  became  minister 
at  Thornbury  in  Gloucestershire,  and  was  subsequently  a  popular 
preacher  in  London.  While  in  creed  a  Puritan,  regarding  im 
posed  ceremonies  as  "  inconvenicncies,  and  the  Church's  burdens," 
he  was  of  opinion  that  a  minister  ought  to  conform  to  them  under 
protest,  rather  than  suffer  deprivation.  Wood  says,  he  was  a 
grave  and  pious  divine,  and  cut  off  in  the  prime  of  his  years  when 
great  things  were  expected  from  him.1 

We  have  referred  to  the  hopes  entertained  by  the  Puritans 
from  the  accession  of  King  James  vi.  to  the  throne  of  England. 
Among  these  hopes  was  that  of  a  more  generally  and  strictly  ob 
served  Sabbath.  It  was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  native  and 
the  Sovereign  of  a  country  where  so  much  zeal  had  been  evinced 
in  favour  of  the  institution,  the  man  who  had  spoken  out  so 
strongly  against  the  Popish  days  of  Geneva  and  the  English  mass, 
and  the  author  of  the  BacnAiKov  Aw^ov,  which  allowed  unsupersti- 
tious  and  lawful  amusements,  and  cheer,  "  alwaies  provided  that 
the  Sabbaths  be  kept  holy,  and  no  imlawfull  pastimes  then  be 
used"  (p.  52),  would  be  right  glad  to  comply  with  such  a  request 
as  that  presented  in  the  Millenary  petition,  which  craved,  "  That 
the  Lord's  day  be  not  profaned,  and  the  rest  upon  holidays  not 
so  strictly  urged."  And  though  it  was  not  long  before  his  Ma 
jesty  disclosed  enough  to  confirm  the  fears  that  were  blended 
with  the  expectations  of  his  best  subjects,  yet  the  very  earliest 
measures  of  his  reign  held  out  prospects  of  permanent  favour  to 
the  sabbatic  cause.  We  refer  to  his  proclamation  at  Theobald's, 
May  7,  1603,  the  day  of  his  entry  into  London,  against  bear  and 
bull  baitings,  with  other  disorderly  pastimes,  being  "  frequented, 
kept,  or  used  any  time  hereafter  upon  any  Sabbath-day ;"  to  the 
procedure  of  the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  January  1604-,  where 
Dr.  Rainolds,  the  most  learned  man  of  his  time,  the  originator  of 
the  present  authorized  version  of  the  Scriptures,  and  afterwards 
one  of  the  translators,  having  said  "  Great  is  the  profanation  of 
the  Sabbath-day,  and  contempt  of  your  Majesty's  proclamation, 
which  I  earnestly  desire  may  be  reformed,"  the  "  motion  found 
an  unanimous  consent;"2  and  to  the  enactment  passed  by  the 

1  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  ii.  pp.  305,  306;  Calamy's  Account,  vol.  ii.  p.  343;  Fuller'* 
Worthies,  vol.  i.  p.  564  ;  Wood's  Afhen.  Qxon.  vol.  i.  p.  40«.          2  Fuller,  vol   v.  -p.  2*4 


ENGLAND.  83 

first  English  Parliament  after  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  held  in 
March  of  the  same  year,  prohibiting  shoemakers  from  selling-  the 
articles  of  their  craft  upon  Sunday.  But  the  Millenary  perition 
was  destined  to  receive  a  negative  on  the  subject  of  the  Sanbath 
as  decided,  if  not  so  prompt,  as  on  that  of  rites  and  ceremonies  ; 
and  when,  in  the  seventh  year  of  this  reign  a  second  attempt  to 
legislate  for  the  stricter  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  proved  un 
successful,  the  petitioners  might,  notwithstanding  the  royal  ratifi 
cation  of  the  Irish  Church  Articles  in  1615,1  have  been  prepared 
for  the  next  act  of  the  drama. 

This  was  the  publication  in  1618  of  The  Declaration  f 07  Iports 
on  the  Lord's  day.  As  Morton,  bishop  of  Durham,  had  x  con 
siderable  share  in  the  preparation  of  this  celebrated  docun^at,  it 
is  of  importance  to  hear  his  almost  entirely  neglected  account  of 
its  origin.  It  is  given  by  Dr.  Barwick,  Ins  biographer,  who  says 
he  had  often  heard  it  from  the  bishop's  own  mouth,  and  is  tr»  the 
following  effect  :  In  Lancashire,  where  "  the  Popish  recusants" 
abounded  (then,  as  since)  more  than  in  any  other  county  of  Eng 
land,  it  was  the  policy  of  their  leaders  to  "  keep  the  people  fr^in 
church  by  dancing,  and  other  recreations,  even  in  the  time  of 
Divine  service,  especially  on  holy  days,  and  the  Lord's  day  in  the 
afternoon."  This  gross  abuse  the  bishop  endeavoured  to  redress 
in  his  primary  visitation.  "  But  it  was  represented  to  King  James 
as  a  very  great  grievance,  at  his  return  out  of  Scotland  through 
Lancashire  in  1617,  by  some  in  Court  who  were  too  favourable 
to  that  party.  And  his  readiness  to  hear  any  complaint  against 
a  thing  that  carried  but  the  name  of  a  public  grievance,  encouraged 
some  to  so  much  boldness  the  next  Lord's  day  after,  as  even  to 
disturb  the  public  worship  and  service  of  God  by  their  piping  and 
dancing  within  the  hearing  of  all  those  that  were  at  church,  whereof 
the  King  being  fully  informed  by  this  bishop,  utterly  disavowed 
any  thoughts  or  intention  of  encouraging  such  profaneness  ;  and 
therefore  left  them  that  were  guilty  of  it  to  the  bishop's  censure, 
which  he  inflicted  only  upon  one  that  was  the  head  and  causejr 

1  One  of  these  Articles  was  as  follows  :  "  The  first  day  of  the  week,  which  is  the 
Lord's  day,  is  wholly  to  be  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God  ;  and,  therefore,  we  are 
bound  therein  to  rest  from  our  common  and  daily  business,  and  to  bestow  that  leisure 
upon  holv  exercises,  both  private  and  public." 


84  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

of  it.  There  wanted  not  some  still  to  complain  to  the  King  of 
the  bishop's  proceedings  herein  as  rigorous  and  tyrannical,  con 
sidering  that  the  chief  thing  they  desired  was  only  some  innocent 
recreation  for  servants  and  other  inferior  people  on  the  Lord's  day, 
and  holy  days,  whose  laborious  callings  deprived  them  of  it  at  all 
other  times  ;  and  thereupon  to  solicit  his  Majesty  for  some  power 
therein,  and  the  rather  because  it  was  the  general  desire  of  most 
of  that  country.  Which  the  King  finding  to  be  true  upon  inquiry, 
and  willing  to  give  them  satisfaction  therein,  consulted  with  this 
reverend  person,  being  the  bishop  of  that  diocese,  how  he  might 
satisfy  their  desires  without  endangering  this  liberty  to  be  turned 
into  licentiousness.  The  bishop  hereupon,  retiring  from  the  court 
at  Haughton  Tower  to  his  own  lodging  at  Preston,  considered  of 
six  limitations  or  restrictions,  by  way  of  conditions,  to  be  imposed 
upon  every  man  that  should  enjoy  the  benefit  of  that  liberty, 
which  he  presented  to  the  King  in  waiting  the  next  day,  and  which 
the  King  did  very  well  approve  of,  and  added  a  seventh  ;  saying 
only,  he  would  alter  them  from  the  words  of  a  bishop  to  the  words 
of  a  King."1  Dr.  Barwick  adds,  though  he  cannot  positively 
affirm  it,  as  he  does  the  preceding  details,  that  Bishop  Andrewes, 
who  then  attended  the  King,  "  was  therefore  in  all  probability 
consulted  in  the  same  business."  If  consulted,  of  which,  however, 
no  evidence  appears,  it  does  not  follow,  but  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
most  improbable,  that  he  approved  of  a  measure  so  contrary  to  his 
principles,  for  he  held  that,  "  to  indulge  in  dancing,  vacare  chords, 
on  the  Lord's  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  golden  calf."2  Barwick 
would  have  hazarded  a  happier  conjecture  by  supposing  that,  in 
stead  of  Andrewes,  Laud  was  consulted,  as  this  individual,  who 
was  also  then  in  attendance  upon  the  King,  was,  according  to  his 
own  confession  on  his  trial,  favourable  to  the  re-issue  of  the  Book 
of  Sports  in  the  following  reign. 

On  May  24,  1618,  the  Court  being  then  at  Greenwich,  the 
King  published  the  Declaration,  of  which  it  may  suffice  to  present 
an  abstract. 

1.  The  document  professes  to  be  an  explanation,  rendered  ne 
cessary  by  the  calumnious  misrepresentations  of  Papists  and  Puri 
tans  in  Lancashire,  of  his  Majesty's  directions  given  there  in  the 

i  lAft.  ofBialtop  Morton,  p.  80.        a  Pattern*  of  Oatech.  on  thr,  Fovrtt  CowwMicftiwnt 


ENGLAND.  85 

preceding  year  concerning  Sunday  sports,  and  to  be  also  a  publi 
cation  of  these  directions  to  all  his  subjects,  with  a  few  additional 
words  specially  applicable  to  the  people  of  that  county. 

2.  It  states  that  the  report  of  a  recently  growing  amendment 
amongst  the  inhabitants  of  Lancashire,   a  part  of  the  country 
abounding  more  than  any  other  in  Popish  recusants,  made  him 
the  more  sorry  when  with  his  own  ears  he  heard  the  general 
complaint  of  his  people,  that  they  were  barred  from  all  lawful 
recreation  and  exercise  upon  the  Sunday  afternoon  after  the  end 
ing  of  all  Divine  service,  which  prohibition  could  not  but  produce 
two  evils  ;  first,  preventing  the  conversion  of  many  whom  their 
priests  would  take  occasion  hereby  to  vex,  persuading  them  that 
no  honest  mirth  or  recreation  was  lawful  on  those  days  ;  second, 
precluding  the  common  people,  occupied  wholly  in  winning  their 
bread  on  other  days,  from  the  exercises  necessary  to  "  make  their 
bodies  more  able  for  war,"  and,  in  place  thereof,  setting  up  filthy 
tipplings    and    drunkenness,     and    breeding    "  idle    discontented 
speeches  in  their  ale-houses." 

3.  It  directs  that  the  clergy  shall  employ  instruction  and  per 
suasion  for  the  conversion  of  Papists,  and  shall  "  present  them 
that  will  not  conform  themselves  but  obstinately  stand  out,"  to 
the  civil  authorities,  who  are  required  to  put  the  laws  in  execu 
tion  against  them ;  and  that  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  shall  con 
strain  "  the  Puritans  and  Precisians "  to  conform,  or  quit  the 
country. 

4.  It  provides  that  the  people  "  be  not  disturbed,  letted,  or 
discouraged  from  any  lawful  recreation,  such  as  dancing,  either 
men  or  women,  archery  for  men,  leaping,  vaulting,  or  any  other 
such  harmless  recreation,  nor  from  having  of  May-games,  Whit- 
sun-ales,  and  Morris-dances,  and  the  setting  up  of  May-poles,  and 
other  sports  therewith  used,  so  as  the  same  be  had  in  due  and 
convenient  time,  without  impediment  or  let  of  Divine  service ; 
and  that  women  shall  have  leave  to  carry  rushes  to  church  for 
th«  decoriug  of  it,  according  to  their  old  custom."     This  order  is 
accompanied  with  the  following  explanations   and   restrictions  • 
First.  «  We  do  here  account  still  as  prohibited,  all  unlawful  games 
to  be  used  on  Sundays  only,  as  bear  and  bull  baitings,  interludes, 
and.  at  all  times  in  the  meaner  sort  of  people  by  law  prohibited, 


86  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

bowling."  Second,  That  all  known  recusants  abstaining  from 
coming  to  Church  and  Divine  service,  and  any  that,  though 
"  conform  in  religion,"  are  not  present  in  the  church  at  the  ser 
vice  of  God  before  their  going  to  the  said  recreations,  are  barred 
from  this  benefit  and  liberty.  Third,  That  the  authorities  shall 
sharply  punish  all  who  abuse  this  liberty  before  the  end  of  all 
Divine  services  for  the  day.  Fourth,  That  no  offensive  weapon 
be  carried  or  used  in  the  said  times  of  recreations. 

5.  It  "  straightly  commands,  that  every  person  shall  resort  to 
his  own  parish  church  to  hear  Divine  service,  and  each  parish  by 
itself  to  use  the  said  recreations  after  Divine  service." 

6.  It  concludes  with  the  words,   "  And  our  pleasure  is,   That 
this  our  Declaration  shall  be  published  by  order  from  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese,  through  all  the  parish  churches,  and  that  both  our 
Judges  of  our  Circuits,  and  our  Justices  of  our  Peace,  be  informed 
thereof." 

It  would  not  affect  the  principle  involved  in  this  extraordinary 
proclamation,  even  were  it  true,  as  Fuller  and  others  relying  on 
his  authority  have  affirmed,  that  it  was  merely  "  local  for  Lanca 
shire  ;"  but  the  assertion  is  not  true,  for  the  document  calls  itself 
a  publication  to  all  his  subjects  of  his  Majesty's  directions  given 
in  that  county  ;  and  Charles  I.,  when  renewing  the  edict,  states 
that  his  dear  father  of  blessed  memory  did,  in  his  princely  wisdom, 
publish  a  declaration  to  all  his  loving  subjects  concerning  lawful 
sports,  from  the  want  of  which  his  people  in  all  other  parts  of  the 
kingdom  suffered  in  the  same  kind,  though  perhaps  not  in  the 
same  degree,  as  the  men  and  women  of  Lancashire.  Nor  is  it  a 
justification  of  the  proceeding  to  say,  that  the  Declaration  con 
tained  no  command  to  any  to  practise  sports  on  the  Lord's  day, 
being  simply  a  prohibition  of  interference  with  persons  who  chose 
so  to  recreate  themselves.  To  concede  the  absence  of  positive 
injunction  in  the  matter  would  still  leave  enough  to  constitute  the 
measure  an  atrocity  against  the  Sabbatic  institution  unparalleled 
at  the  time  in  history.  Bidding  defiance  to  the  practice  of  good 
men  in  every  age — to  all  that  had  been  done  by  fathers,  councils, 
ancl  princes,  for  securing  the  weekly  rest  from  the  pollution  of 
worldly  pleasure,  as  for  the  most  part  also  from  the  intrusion  of 
secular  work — to  the  doctrine  of  the  Homilies  and  other  formu< 


ENGLAND.  87 

laries  of  the  English  Church, — above  all,  to  the  Law  and  Decla 
ration  of  the  King  of  kings,  which  respectively  said,  "  Remember 
the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy  ;"  "  If  thou  shalt  honour  me"  by 
the  abnegation  of  thine  own  ways,  pleasure,  and  words,  "  I  will 
make  thee  to  ride  on  the  high  places  of  the  earth  ;" — and  disre 
garding  the  claims  of  his  people  to  a  stated  time  for  rest,  for  read 
ing,  for  reflection,  for  domestic  worship  and  instruction,  and  for 
expressing  sympathy  in  the  sorrows  of  fellow-creatures  around, — 
the  King  of  England  proclaims  it  to  be  right,  patriotic,  and  bene 
ficial  for  his  subjects  to  abandon  themselves  to  thought-dispelling, 
exhausting,  and  dissipating  sports  in  the  afternoon  of  the  Lord's 
day,  and  wrong  for  any  man  to  do  his  duty  to  his  God,  his  con 
science,  his  Church,«  and  his  country,  by  attempting  to  hinder  this 
wholesale  desecration  of  sacred  time. 

It  was  not  surprising  that  the  Book  of  Sports  should  produce 
the  greatest  alarm  and  sorrow  among  the  best  of  the  clergy  and 
people.1  Several  of  the  bishops  declared  their  opinion  against  it.'2 
Archbishop  Abbot  being  at  Croydon,  forbade  it  to  be  read  in  the 
church  there  on  the  day  appointed.3  Dr.  Twisse  not  only  refused 
to  read,  but  condemned,  the  Declaration  from  his  pulpit.4  His 
Majesty  was  prudent  enough  to  wink  at  these  offences  "  against 
his  spiritual  supremacy."5  And,  though  when  the  Lord  Mayor 
of  London  commanded  the  royal  carriages  to  be  stopped  as  they 
were  driving  through  the  city  on  a  Sunday  during  Divine  service, 
James  vowed  that  "  he  thought  there  had  been  no  more  kings  in 
England  but  himself,"  and  directed  a  warrant  to  his  lordship, 
ordering  him  to  let  the  carriages  pass,  yet  when  the  civic  officer 
yielded,  with  the  answer,  "  While  it  was  in  my  power  I  did  my 
duty,  but  that  being  taken  away  by  a  higher  power,  it  is  my  duty 
to  obey  ;"  the  King,  it  is  said,  was  pleased,  and  returned  him  his 
thanks.6  It  is  generally  agreed  by  writers  that  the  Declaration 
proved  a  failure — that  the  matter,  as  Collier  says,  was  dropt. 
Fuller  states,  that  the  King  of  his  goodness  removed  the  cause  of 

1  Fuller  (1845),  vol.  v.  pp.  452,  453  ;  Collier's  Eccl.  Hist,  of  Britain  (1714),  voL  ii.  p. 
712. 

2  Bishop  Rennet's  Complete  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  709 ;  Neale's  Feasts  and 
Fasts,  p.  228.  3  Life  of  Abbot,  p.  27. 

«  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  iii.  p.  14.  *  Ibid.  ;  Neale's  Feasts  and  Fasts,  p.  2S8 

1  Rennet's  Complete  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  709. 


88  SKETCHES  OP  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

alarm,  and  that  no  minister  was  obliged  to  read  the  document 
from  the  pulpit.  But  according  to  another  account,  the  book 
came  forth  with  a  command,  enjoining  all  ministers  to  read  it  to 
their  parishioners  ;  and  those  that  did  not  were  brought  into  the 
High  Commission,  imprisoned,  and  suspended.1  Whatever  might 
induce  royalty  to  "  drop"  The  Dancing  JSook,  it  certainly  was  not 
loving-kindness  or  tender  mercy. 

Before  passing  from  England,  and  its  Sabbath  of  1618,  we 
ought  to  mention  another  phase  of  the  controversy  which  appeared 
there,  in  that  unprecedented  year  of  trespass  against  Sabbatic  rights 
and  sanctities.  The  opinion,  that  the  seventh-day  Sabbath  is  of 
unchanged  and  unchangeable  obligation,  was  mooted,  as  we  have 
seen,  p.  60,  so  early  as  1584,  but  it  attracted  little  attention  till 
1618,  when  John  Traske,  a  schoolmaster  in  his  native  county  of 
Somerset,  having  obtained  "  orders,"  which  had  been  at  first  re 
fused  him  on  the  alleged  ground  of  his  un fitness,  forthwith  avowed 
himself  a  Sabbatarian,  and  began  to  "  preach  up  the  Levitical 
rites." 2  For  these  errors,  or,  according  to  another  account,  for 
"  making  of  conventicles  and  factions,  by  that  means  which  may 
tend  to  sedition  and  commotion,  and  for  scandalizing  the  king,  the 
bishops,  and  the  clergy,"3  "  he  was  censured  in  the  Star-Chamber 
to  be  set  upon  the  pillory  at  Westminster,  and  from  thence  to  be 
whipt  to  the  Fleet,  there  to  remain  prisoner."4  Mrs.  Traske  was, 
for  maintaining  the  same  opinions,  also  sent  to  prison,  where  she 
spent  the  remaining  fifteen  years  of  her  life,  resolutely  holding 
by  her  creed  to  the  last.  Traske's  views  were  opposed  by  Bishop 
Andrewes  in  a  Star-Chamber  speech  which  has  frequently  been 
referred  to  in  the  controversy.  Lord  Bacon,  writing  to  Bucking 
ham  on  December  1,  1619,  says,  "This  day  also,  Traske  in  open 
Court  made  a  retractation  of  his  wicked  opinions  in  writing.  The 
form  was  as  good  as  may  be.  I  declared  to  him  that  this  Court 
was  the  judgment-seat ;  the  mercy-seat  was  his  Majesty  :  but  the 
Court  would  commend  him  to  his  Majesty ;  and  humbly  pray  his 
Majesty  to  signify  his  pleasure  speedily,  because  of  the  misery  of 
the  man  ;  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  for  a  sectary  that  hath  once 

1  Kennet's  Complete  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  709  ;  Rapin,  vol.  ix.  p.  386. 

*  Collenge's  (Dr.  Collinges)  Modest  Plea  for  the  Lord's  Day,  p.  74. 

»  Hobart's  Reports  quoted  in  Bishop  Andrewes'  Minor  Works  (1854),  p>,  83. 

*  Pagitt's  Herfsiog.  (1C62),  p.  161. 


ENGLAND.  89 

suffered  smart  and  shame,  to  turn  so  tmfeignedly  as  he  seemed  to 
do."1  In  1621,  Mr.  Traske  published  his  recantation,  under  the 
title,  Liberty  from  Judaism,  of  \vhich  it  has  been  said,  "  It  is 
certainly  not  the  production  of  a  weak  or  an  ignorant  person,  but 
is  on  the  contrary  remarkable  for  the  excellence  of  its  style  and 
spirit."2  According  to  the  editor  of  Pagitt,  he  afterwards  fell 
to  Antinomian  opinions.  Fuller  says,  "  he  relapsed  not  into  the 
same  but  other  opinions,  rather  humourous  than  hurtful,  and  died 
obscurely  at  Lambeth." 

The  people  of  Scotland  were  treated  to  what  was  no  less  abhor 
rent  to  their  views  than  a  Book  of  Sports,  in  the  famous  Five 
Articles  which  the  Court  and  bishops  contrived  to  force  upon  them, 
through  a  Convention  held  at  Perth,  August  25,  1618.  These 
articles  prescribed  (along  with  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper,  the 
administration  of  the  same  Ordinance  to  the  sick  in  their  houses, 
private  baptism,  and  confirmation),  the  observance  henceforth  in 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland  of  the  following  festivals — Christmas,  Easter, 
Whitsunday,  and  the  Ascension  of  the  Saviour.  The  King  ordered 
these  articles  to  be  published  at  the  Market  Cross  in  each  borough, 
and  to  be  read  by  the  ministers  in  their  pulpits,  the  greater  num 
ber  of  whom  disobeyed  the  order.  They  were  ratified  by  the 
Parliament  in  1621. 

An  incident  of  the  latter  year  exhibits  the  practice  of  the  mon 
arch  as  conoistent  with  his  principles,  if  not  with  either  religion 
or  decorum.  TecUnogamia  or  the  Marriage  of  Arts,  a  Comedy, 
was,  after  some  alterations  by  the  author,  Barton  Holyday,  acted 
before  the  King  at  Woodstock,  on  a  Sunday  night,  August  26, 
1621.  But  it  being  too  grave  for  the  King,  and  too  scholastic 
for  the  auditory  (or  as  some  have  said,  the  actors  having  taken 
too  much  wine  before  they  began),  his  Majesty,  after  two  acts, 
offered  several  times  to  withdraw,  but  was  induced  to  remain, 
which  gave  occasion  to  these  lines  by  a  certain  scholar  : — 

"  At  Christ  Church  Marriage  done  before  the  King, 
Lest  that  those  mates  should  want  an  offering, 
The  King  himself  did  offer,  What?  I  pray  ? 
He  offered  twice  or  thrice  to  go  away."3 

1  Works  (1830),  vol.  xii.  p.  379. 

«  Fuller's  Church  History  (1845),  vol.  v.  pp.  460,  461.     Xote  by  the  editor. 

»  Wood's  AtJien.  Oxon.  vol.  ii.  p.  170. 


90  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

The  suspension  of  hostilities  consequent  on  the  proceedings  of 
1618,  although  of  brief  duration,  affords  an  opportunity  of  turn 
ing  for  a  little  to  the  controversy  which  .-ad  already  commenced 
in  Holland. 


THE  NETHERLANDS. 

No  Sabbatic  strife  appeared  in  the  Belgic  Churches  for  a  cen 
tury  after  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  had  been  embraced 
by  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Low  Countries.  The 
Churches,  though  engaged  at  an  early  period  of  their  history  in  a 
fruitless  struggle  with  the  magistrates  for  the  exclusion  of  Popish 
holidays,  and  in  occasional  conflicts  with  certain  fanatics  who  ab 
jured  all  distinction  of  days,  were  agr<ftd  among  themselves  on  the 
subject  of  the  weekly  rest,  their  views  on  that  point  being  sub 
stantially  the  views  which  have  been  held  by  the  great  body  of 
Christians  in  all  countries  and  times.  John  Robinson  (1 575-1 625), 
so  well  known  as  the  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  said  in  the 
year  1619,  that  in  regard  to  the  sanctifi cation  of  the  Lord's  day, 
in  which  he  and  his  friends  then  resident  in  Holland  seemed 
"even  superstitiously  rigid,"  the  Belgic  Churches  did  not  "differ 
from  them  in  judgment,  but  in  practice,"  and  referred,  in  proof 
of  his  remark,  to  the  lately  published  Harmony  of  the  Belgic 
Synods"1 

The  unfailing  result,  however,  of  the  addition  of  human  to 
Divine  ordinances  soon  discovered  itself  in  a  diminished  practical 
regard  for  the  Lord's  day.  "  It  seemeth  not  without  all  leaven 
of  superstition,"  as  the  same  writer  remarks,  "  that  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Churches  do  observe  certain  days  consecrated  as  holy 
to  the  nativity,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Christ,  and  the 
same  also  (as  it  commonly  comes  to  pass  where  human  devices 
are  reared  up  by  the  side  of  Divine  institutions),  much  more  holy 
[holily]  than  the  Lord's  day  by  him  himself  appointed."2  Robin 
son  and  his  flock,  "  neither  allowed  to  remain  peacefully  in  Eng 
land,  nor  suffered  quietly  to  depart,"  had,  in  1608,  escaped  to 
Holland,  and,  after  a  year's  residence  in  Amsterdam,  had  settled 

),  vol.  iii.  p.  46.  :  Works  (1861),  vol.  iii.  p.  43. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  9  I 

in  Leyden.  Of  various  reasons  for  the  resolution  to  quit  their 
adopted  country  for  America,  one  was,  "  that  they  could  not  bring 
the  Dutch  to  observe  the  Lord's  day  as  a  Sabbath,  or  to  reform 
anything  amiss  amongst  them."1 

A  correspondingly  low  state  of  religion  and  morals  was  the  fruit 
of  a  like  neglect  of  the  institution  in  Zealand.  Happily,  however, 
the  remedial  means  employed  were  in  this  instance  more  success 
ful.  An  ardent  Zealander,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  feelings 
and  language  of  the  people,  was  the  instrument  of  reviving  a  respect 
for  the  Sabbath,  and  of  advancing  the  cause  of  religion,  not  only 
in  his  own  province,  but  throughout  the  Netherlands.  "  Where 
the  Sabbath  is  at  an  undervalue  in  any  country,"  said  Hugh 
Peters,  when  under  sentence  of  death,  "  say  it  be  in  France, 
Holland,  Germany,  etc.,  there  you  shall  find  religion  wasting 
itself  into  disputes.  I  was  a  witness  that  Middleburgh,  in  Zea 
land,  or  Walcheren,  grew  famous  for  religion  by  Teeling,  their 
preacher,  fetching  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  from  England."2 
Amesius,  writing  in  1630,  the  year  after  Teellinck's  death,  and 
referring  to  the  distinguished  piety  of  pastors  and  people  in  Zea 
land,  as  noted  in  all  places  around,  singles  out  for  special  enco 
mium  "that  remarkable  servant  of  God,  Yv7illiam  Teellinck,  who 
exerted  himself  so  ardently  in  public  and  private,  by  his  voice 
and  by  his  writings,  in  promoting  the  cause  of  religion,  as  that 
the  zeal  of  God's  house  may  be  said  to  have  eaten  him  up,  and 
who,  having  overcome  the  envy  attendant  on  such  excellence,  has 
gained  the  crown  which  God  has  prepared  for  those  that  have 
turned  many  to  righteousness."3 

This  "  most  popular  preacher,  and  voluminous  writer  among 
the  Dutch  divines  of  his  day,"  was  born  at  Zierikzee,  and  having 
studied  for  some  time  at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,4  took 
his  degree  at  Poictiers  in  1603,  with  a  view  to  the  legal  profes 
sion.  But  in  the  course  of  a  visit  to  England  and  Scotland,  he 
was  so  deeply  impressed  at  a  prayer-meeting  held  in  London  by 
John  Dod,  Arthur  Hildersham,  and  other  pious  ministers  of  the 

1  Morton's  N.  England's  Memorial  (1826),  p.  19. 

2  Dying  Father's  Legacy,  as  quoted  in  Hanbury's  Memorials,  vol.  iii.  p.  581. 

3  De  Conscientid  (1670),  Dedication,  p.  2. 

*  •'  Gulielmus  Teelingius  "  occurs  in  the  list  of  foreign  students  at  St.  Andrews,  A.  a, 
1600,  when  Andrew  Melville  was  Principal.  M'Crie's  MeMlU,  vol.  ii.  p.  49. 


92  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

gospel,  as  to  form  the  resolution  of  devoting  himself  to  the 
ministry,  a  purpose  which  the  unanimous  concurrence  of  his 
English  friends,  after  a  day  set  apart  by  them  and  himself  for 
invoking  the  Divine  direction,  contributed  to  strengthen.  He 
became  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  Dutch  Eeformed  Church  in 
Middleburg.  Dr.  Steven,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  some  of 
these  particulars,  mentions  that  Teellinck  was  a  zealous  friend  of 
the  British  settlers  in  Walcheren,  having  been  principally  instru 
mental  in  the  erection  of  their  place  of  worship,  and  frequently 
employed  in  officiating  to  the  congregation.1  It  is  stated  by 
Foppens,  that  he  wrote  or  edited  no  fewer  than  127  publications 
in  the  Dutch  language.2 

In  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  as  to  other  things,  practical  evil 
prepares  the  way  for  the  adoption  of  such  opinions  as  serve  the 
offender  for  a  justification  of  his  conduct.  If  new  views  of  the 
institution  had  previously  to  1618  been  partially  entertained  in 
the  Belgic  Churches,  it  was  not  till  that  year,  according  to  a 
laborious  and  able  writer,  that  they  led  to  open  strife.3  A  con 
troversy,  or  "  twist,"  as  it  is  called  in  the  language  of  the  country, 
then  commenced,  which,  extending  beyond  the  scene  of  its  origin, 
continued  with  occasional  pauses  for  upwards  of  a  century.  It 
took  its  rise  among  the  ministers  of  Zealand,  though  not  as  repre 
sented  by  Dr.  Hengstenberg  in  these  words  :  "  From  England 
the  doctrine  of  the  obligation  of  the  Mosaic  law  of  the  Sabbath 
spread  to  Holland.  Some  English  Puritans,  who  sought  an  asylum 
in  Zealand,  introduced  it.  It  was  first  published  in  two  works 
on  Ethics,  by  Udemaun  in  1612,  and  Teelling  in  1617.  Several 
ministers  embraced  the  new  opinions  ;  others  retained  the  old."4 
The  Puritans  referred  to  by  the  writer  must  have  been  Thomas 
Cartwright,  Robert  Browne,  Henry  Jacob,  and  Hugh  Broughton 
(or  some  of  their  number),  who,  with  John  Forbes,  a  Scotsman, 
had  resided  in  Middleburg  before  the  year  1617.  But  if  the 
testimony  of  Robinson  already  adduced  be  true — and  its  truth 
admits  of  full  confirmation — there  was  no  call  for  the  interfer 
ence  of  foreigners  in  attempting  to  change  the  opinions  of  the 
Zealanders  in  reference  to  the  institution,  since  both  foreigners 

1  Hint,  of  Scot.  Church,  Rotterdam,  p.  317.         •  Bibliathec.  Belgic  (ITte),  vol.  i.  p.  424 
*  Koelmnn,  T>t,  Histoir*  ran  den  Sab.  j>.  250.       *  lord's  Day,  p.  69. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  93 

and  Zealanders  were  substantially  of  the  same  mind  on  the  sub 
ject,  nor,  though  such  men  as  Cartwright  and  his  friends  would, 
as  occasion  offered,  declare  their  Sabbatic  views,  have  we  evidence 
that  they  felt  it  necessary  to  combat  opinions  opposite  to  their 
own.  It  was  improved  practice  that  was  needed ;  and  what 
English  Puritans  failed  to  effect  in  Holland,  was  by  a  native, 
profiting,  indeed,  by  what  he  had  witnessed  of  a  well-observed 
Sabbath  in  England  and  Scotland,  achieved  in  Zealand.  And 
when  Godfrey  Udemann,  minister  at  Zierikzee,  and  not  the  least 
able  or  energetic  member  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  maintained  in  his 
Practice  of  the  Christian  Virtues,  as*  in  other  writings,  the  doc 
trines  of  a  primitive — perpetual — moral,  not  "  Mosaic  "  Sabbath 
transferred  under  Christianity  to  a  new  day,  he  and  Teellinck,  who 
also  held  these  doctrines,  instead  of  introducing  novelties,  or  re 
quiring  to  borrow  their  opinions  from  abroad,  found  their  tenets 
already  in  the  creed  of  their  Church,  and  enunciated  by  Junius, 
Trelcatius,  Acronius,  and  other  expounders  of  her  formularies — 
not  to  plead  here  that  their  views  were  as  old,  some  of  them  as 
Christianity,  others  as  the  completed  creation. 

The  earliest  agitation  of  the  Sabbath  question  in  the  Nether 
lands,  though  keen,  was  not  lasting.  The  combatants  agreed  to 
submit  the  points  at  issue  to  the  judgment  of  the  celebrated  Synod 
of  Dort,  which  assembled  November  13,  1618,  for  composing  the 
more  serious  differences  between  the  Calvinists  and  Arrninians. 
Apart  indeed  from  the  case  to  be  referred  to  it  for  decision,  the 
Synod  in  reality  declared  its  Sabbatic  views  at  its  fourteenth 
session,  when  it  re-inforced  the  exposition  of  the  Catechism  by 
ministers  in  the  afternoon  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  agreed  to  call  on 
the  magistrates  for  the  prohibition  by  severer  enactments  of  all 
servile  or  customary  work,  and  especially  games,  compotations,  and 
other  profane  practices  so  common,  particularly  in  villages,  on  that 
part  of  the  day,  that  the  people  might  be  induced  to  attend  on 
religious  instruction,  and  thus  learn  to  sanctify  the  entire  Sabbath.1 
The  foreign  deputies  having  taken  their  departure,  May  9,  1619, 
the  deputies  of  the  Low  Countries  proceeded  to  deliberate  on 
matters  of  local  concern.  According  to  the  statement  of  Walseus, 
who  was  well  qualified  to  speak  on  the  subject,  the  remanent 

i  Acta.  Synod.  (Lug.  Bat.  1620),  p.  28. 
5* 


94  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

members  judged  it  to  be  beyond  their  province — suiforinin  esse 
— to  decide  on  questions  of  so  general  importance  as  had  been 
raised  respecting  the  Sabbath,  and  only  recommended  to  the  con 
tending  parties,  laying  aside  other  points  of  debate,  to  adhere  to 
certain  rules,  in  which,  before  arbiters,  they  had  agreed  to  acquiesce.1 
The  arbiters  were  Professors  Gomaxus,  Walaeus,  Thysius,  and  Festus 
Hommius,  who  had  also  prepared  the  rules  or  articles  of  peace,  as 
follows  : — 

First,  In  the  fourth  precept  of  the  Divine  law,  there  is  some, 
thing  ceremonial  and  something  moral. 

Second,  The  ceremonial  consists  in  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day 
from  the  creation,  and  in  the  rigid  observance  of  that  rest  enjoined 
specially  on  the  Jews. 

Third,  The  moral  is  the  assignation  of  a  certain  and  stated  day 
to  Divine  worship,  and  so  much  rest  as  is  requisite  for  Divine 
worship  and  holy  meditation  on  that  day. 

Fourth,  The  Sabbath  of  the  Jews  having  been  abrogated,  the 
Lord's  day  ought  to  be  solemnly  sanctified  by  Christians. 

Fifth,  This  day  was  ever  from  the  times  of  the  Apostles  observed 
by  the  ancient  Catholic  Church. 

Sixth,  This  day  ought  to  be  so  consecrated  to  Divine  worship 
as  that  there  may  be  a  cessation  thereon  from  all  servile  works, 
excepting  works  of  charity  and  urgent  necessity,  and  from  such 
recreations  as  hinder  the  worship  of  God.2 

These  rules  were,  according  to  Walaeus,  commended  by  the 
Synod  to  the  Churches  of  the  Netherlands,  and  followed  up  by  a 
petition  to  the  States- General,  adopted  session  177,  which,  with 
other  requests,  craved  that  the  strictest  measures  might  be  em 
ployed  to  suppress  certain  specified  forms  of  prevailing  Sabbat! i 
profanation. 

For  some  years  the  spirit  of  controversy  slumbered,  or  rather 
smouldered,  under  an  agreement  which  it  seems  strange  should 
have  been  assented  to  by  either  of  the  contending  parties.  Teel- 
linck,  intent  on  practical  objects,  published  in  1621,  The  JRtst-time, 
or  a  Treatise  on  the  Obswvance  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  which 

i  Walasi  Opera  (1647),  torn.  i.  p.  276. 

8  "  In  quarto  legis  divinse  prsecepto,"  etc.  Walsei  Op.  torn  i.  p.  276  We  have  trans. 
lated  the  copy  of  the  rules,  which  Walseus  says  he  had  transcribed  from  the  authentic 
A.cts  of  the  Synod, 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  95 

was  approved  by  a  Synod  held  at  Rotterdam,  and  elicited  from 
Gomar  a  friendly  epistle,  lauding  the  pious  endeavours  of  that 
"  eminently  practical  man,"  its  author.1 

The  States-General,  warned  by  recent  events,  resolved  to  select 
for  the  chairs  of  the  University  of  Leyden,  men  not  only  of  learn 
ing  and  worth,  but  also  of  sound  doctrinal  views.  Walaeus  and 
Thysius  in  1619,  and  Rivetus  in  1620,  were  accordingly  appointed 
colleagues  to  Polyander  in  the  teaching  of  Theology.  Desirous  of 
bearing  testimony  to  the  great  principles  which  had  lately  been  in 
peril,  but  had  triumphed,  and  of  showing  their  agreement  in 
religious  sentiment — fidei  ac  sententia?  nostrce  Travapjuoi/iav,  the 
four  Professors  published  in  1625  the  Synoiisis  Purioris  Theolo- 
gice.  The  chapter  containing  a  Disputation  on  the  Sabbath  and  the 
Lord's  Day,  was  contributed  by  Thysius,  who  expresses  opinions  in 
harmony  with  the  Dortrechtan  Articles,  only  adding  to  them  two 
important  statements — the  one  affirming  that  "the  certain  and 
stated  day"  demanded  by  the  morality  of  the  Fourth  Command 
ment,  is  a  perpetual  seventh  portion  of  time  ;  the  other  explicitly 
declaring  that  the  Lord's  day  is  of  "  Apostolic  ordination,  and  con 
sequently  of  Divine  authority,"  its  very  name,  moreover,  intimat 
ing  that  it  was  "consecrated  by  the  Lord,  and  wholly  to  the 
Lord.1'  Antonius  Thysius  (1565-1640)  was  born  at  Antwerp. 
Having  studied  under  Bonaventura  Vulcanius,  whom  he  followed 
to  Leyden, — under  Isaac  Casaubon,  Beza,  and  Faius,  at  Geneva, 
— under  Whitaker  at  Cambridge  and  Rainolds  at  Oxford,  he  be 
came  minister  of  a  church  at  Haarlem,  then  pastor  at  Amster 
dam,  and  Professor  of  Theology  successively  at  Harderwick  and 
Leyden. 

The  first  book  published  in  the  Netherlands  against  the  Sabbath, 
according  to  a  Dutch  authority,  was  Een  Weeklag  der  Kerke,  etc., 
— A  Lamentation  of  the  Church  over  the  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath." 
It  made  its  appearance  in  1626  under  the  name  of  James  Burs, 
minister  at  a  village  near  Middleburg,  and  son  of  Mr.  Giles  Burs, 
colleague  in  the  ministry  to  Teellinck  and  Wala3us,  though  the 
author  was  understood  to  have  been  aided  in  the  work  by  Gomar, 
his  father's  friend.  "  About  this  time,"  says  the  biographer  of 

1  Koelman,  De  Histoire,  etc.  p.  255.    Voct.  Select.  Disput.  TJieol.  (1559),  P.  Hi.  p.  1242. 

2  Koelman,  De  Histoirt,  etc.,  p.  267. 


96  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Walseus,  "the  Churches  of  Zealand  were  agitated  by  the  con 
tentions  of  Teellinck  and  Burs.  The  former,  studious  to  promote 
the  interests  of  piety,  while  aiming  at  the  correction  of  evil,  went 
to  the  extreme  of  rigour  in  the  opposite  direction,  as  they  are  wont 
to  do  who  try  to  straighten  crooked  timber.  In  this  manner,  he 
sought,  in  a  published  treatise,  to  remedy  the  profanation  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  son  of  Burs  seized  the  occasion,  and  gave  to  the 
world  the  Threnody  of  the  Weeping  Church  over  the  fancied  vio 
lation  of  her  liberty,  attempting  to  refute  Teellinck  with  regard  to 
the  observance  of  a  seventh  day,  and  the  institution  of  the  Lord's 
day,  for  which  Gomar,  sufficiently  devoted  to  the  Bursii,  had  sup 
plied  arguments.  The  friends  of  Teellinck  were  aggrieved,  and 
there  was  a  danger  that  they  might  break  out  into  rejoinders,  and 
that  the  Church  might  be  split  into  parties.  Voet  had  opposed 
the  juvenile  production,  by  which  he  appeared  more  to  pro 
voke  the  crocodile  tears  of  the  adversaries,  less  to  edify  the 
Church."1 

The  blame  imputed  by  this  writer  to  Teellinck  amounted  to 
his  holding  views  which  obtained  for  him,  as  they  have  for  many 
others,  the  name  of  Sabbatarian,  and  which  a  great  part  of  the 
Christian  world  have  regarded  as  forming  the  only  consistent  and 
tenable  theory  of  the  weekly  rest.  The  work  of  Voetius  was 
published  in  1627.  The  title,  Lachrymce  Crocodili  abstersce — 
The  Tears  of  the  Crocodile  wiped  away,  however  happily  terse 
and  "  telling,"  according  to  the  modern  demand,  in  such  cases,  or 
however  much  provoked  by  the  enormity  of  the  occasion,  does 
seem  unbecoming  the  subject  and  the  author,  as  well  as  some 
what  misapplied,  since  there  was  no  reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity 
of  the  tears  which  were  shed  by  the  chief  mourner,  and  which 
he  would  naturally  conceive  would  be  shed  by  others,  over  the 
threatened  calamity  of  a  generally-observed  Sabbath.2  How  far 
the  performance  itself  was  liable  to  exception  for  provoking  the 
complaints  of  his  opponents  rather  than  edifying  the  Church,  we 
have  not  the  means  of  judging,  not  having  seen  the  Lachrymce. 
But  we  can  speak  with  some  confidence  of  a  chapter  from  the 

1  Walaei  Opera,  Vita,  p.  40. 

2  If  in  this  instance  of  the  series  mixta  jocis,  which  the  discussions  of  the  time* 
occasionally  elicited,  there  was  more  of  the  serioos  than  was  pleasant  to  the  one  party 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  97 

same  pen,  De  Sabbato  et  Festis,1  which,  if  betraying  "  the  deficiency 
in  philosophical  precision  "  ascribed  to  Voet  by  Mosheim,  assuredly 
affords  abundant  indications  of  what  the  same  authority  accords 
to  him,  "  uncommon  application  and  immense  learning."  Gis- 
bertus  Voetius  (1589-1676)  was  born  at  Heusden  in  Holland — 
was  a  pupil  of  Arminius  and  Gomarus  at  Leyden — became  mini 
ster  of  a  church  in  his  native  town — was  a  member  of  the  Synod 
of  Dort,  the  longest-lived  of  that  distinguished  assembly — and, 
latterly,  Professor  of  the  Oriental  Languages,  and  for  a  time  of 
Theology  also,  at  Utrecht.  It  is  interesting  to  mark  how  this 
ardent  combatant  of  the  Cartesian,  Cocceian,  and  other  errors  of 
his  time,  evinced  no  less  ardour  in  his  ministerial  duties,  preach 
ing  at  one  period  eight  sermons  every  week,  and  resigning  one  of 
his  professorships,  that  he  might  resume  his  earliest  and  favourite 
work.  Of  his  various  writings,  that  by  which  he  is  now  best 
known  is  his  /Select  Theological  Disputations,  where  the  curious 
in  Sabbatic  and  other  religious  opinions  may  find  ample  stores. 

Amesius  (1576-1633),  Professor  of  Theology  at  Franeker,  pub 
lished  the  first  part  of  his  Medulla  Tlieologica,  or  Marrow  of 
Theology  j  in  1623.  The  second  part,  which  appeared  along  with 
the  other  in  1627,  contained  a  chapter  on  "The  Time  of  Wor 
ship,"  in  which  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  was  briefly 
and  lucidly  presented,  and  the  primaeval  appointment  of  the  in 
stitution,  the  Divine  authority  of  its  transference  from  the  seventh 
to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  the  entire  morality  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  were  ably  maintained.  The  contents  of 
this  work,  and  of  that  on  Conscience,  which  latter  supplied  a 
practical  supplement  to  the  chapter  on  the  "  Time  of  Worship"  in 
the  Medulla,  perfectly  harmonize  with  their  avowed  object  of 
recalling  the  attention  of  the  Churches,  too  much  engrossed  with 

or  proper  for  the  other,  the  remark  applies  still  more  to  a  pasquinade  directed  by  an 

ill-natured  wit  against  Voet  himself  during  a  controversy  between  him  and  Maresius — 

"Voetius  odit  alit  fallit       defendit        adoptat 

Pacem,     dissidium,    Patres,    absurda,        malignos." 
To  which  Paul,  son  of  the  lampooned  divine,  happily  retorted  thus — 
"Voetius odit  aiit         defendit    prodit  adoptat 

Dissidium,  pacem,  Patres,       malefacta,    benignos." 

— Foppen's  Biblwthec.  Belgic,  tub  voce  Voet 
i  Sd#st.  Disput.  P.  iii.  pp.  1227-1053. 

0 


98  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

doctrinal  disputes,  to  the  moral  influence  and  practice  of  the 
truth,  for  which,  along  with  Perkins  and  Teellinck,  his  alleged 
models  in  the  attempt,  he  has  received  the  praise  of  Mosheim.1 
This  good  and  learned  man,  the  circumstances  of  whose  retire 
ment  to  Holland  have  been  mentioned  (p.  25),  was  a  native  of 
Norfolk,  and  educated  at  Cambridge  under  Perkins,  to  whom  he 
appeared  to  have  owed,  by  the  Divine  blessing,  his  earliest 
thorough  impressions  of  religion.  After  being  excluded  through 
prelatic  influence  from  his  ministry  at  the  Hague,  he  distinguished 
himself  by  a  controversy  with  Grevinchovius,  one  of  the  leading 
remonstrants.  We  find  him  attending  as  a  hearer  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  and  regularly  communicating  intelligence  of  its  proceedings 
to  King  James's  Ambassador  at  the  Hague.  Apprehensive  that 
the  climate  of  Franeker  would  prove  fatal  to  his  constitution, 
and  having  a  strong  desire  to  preach  the  gospel  to  his  country 
men,  he  accepted,  in  1632,  an  invitation  to  the  charge  of  the 
English  Church  at  Rotterdam,  where  he  died  after  a  year's 
ministry.  His  works  in  Latin,  of  which  a  complete  edition  was 
published  at  Amsterdam  in  1658,  are  said  to  have  been  "  famous 
over  Europe." 

Previously  to  the  appearance  of  the  Wee/dag  and  the  Lachrymce, 
Teellinck  had  been  engaged  in  preparing  his  Nootwendig  Vertoogh, 
etc. — A  Necessary  Demonstration  concerning  the  Present  Afflicted 
State  of  God's  People.  The  author,  on  sending  a  copy  of  it  to 
Walseus,  says,  "  I  only  wish  that  it  may  be  read  with  such  a 
heart  as  is  seemly,  and  then  I  trust  it  will  produce  an  effect 
towards  edification  You  have  doubtless  seen  the  Complaint  of 
J.  Bursius.  I  suppose  you  will  not  forbear  any  longer  to  publish 
your  Treatise  on  the  Sabbath  at  the  first  possible  opportunity, 
though  such  writings,  being  published  rather  inconsiderately, 
would  make  a  bad  impression  upon  the  people,  and  increase  the 
power  of  sinning.  I  hope  that  you,  by-the-bye,  will  declare  me 
to  be  free  from  the  suspicion  which  that  man  insinuates  against  me, 
in  order  to  make  my  service  fruitless.  You  know  how  D.  D.  G. 
has  dealt  with  me.  I  do  not  know  what  the  use  of  cordial 
friendship  and  zeal  for  the  innocent  is,  if  it  keeps  entirely  quiet 
in  such  cases.  But  I  leave  this  to  your  discretion,  and  will  no* 

i  In  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  iv.  pp.  412-414. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  99 

by  this,  my  writing,  press  you  to  do  anything  which  you  yourself 
may  not  deem  advisable."1  In  this  spirited,  and  yet  not  intem 
perate  style  does  Teellinck  refer  to  writers  who  were  combined 
against  him  in  a  work  which  we  leave  it  to  Udemani],  m  a  letter 
shortly  to  be  cited,  to  describe,  and  of  one  of  whom,  his  eulogist 
out  six  short  years  before,  he  might  have  said,  "  And  thou,  too, 
Brutus  !"  After  alluding  to  a  circumstance  bearing  on  the  in 
terests  of  the  Church,  he  concludes  with  the  characteristic  prayer, 
"  May  the  good  God  grant  that  we  may  act  purely  in  these  holy 
matters  !"  The  Nootwendig  Vertoogh,  after  being  twice  written, 
and  submitted  to  the  examination  of  the  Faculties  of  Ley  den  and 
Franeker,  came  out  in  1627,  recommended  by  the  theological 
professors  of  both  these  Universities,  those  of  Leyden  intimating 
that  they  differed  from  the  author  on  certain  points  ;  and  was 
dedicated  to  all  holding  office  in  the  Churches,  Universities, 
Guilds,  and  schools,  and  to  all  heads  of  families  in  the  United 
Provinces.  This,  which  has  been  called  "  a  noble"  work,  has  a 
relation  to  our  subject,  which  must  not  be  estimated  by  the  num 
ber  of  pages  devoted  to  its  consideration.  The  chief  part,  in 
cluding  two  brief  chapters  on  "  The  observance  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  and  its  Rule  in  the  Decalogue,"  must  have  been  printed, 
though  not  issued,  before  the  production  of  Bursius  appeared. 
Teellinck  felt  that  some  counteractive  to  the  mischievous  tendency 
of  such  a  book  was  necessary.  He  accordingly  replied  to  it,  not 
by  argument,  for  which  he  referred  to  the  fiust-tijdt,  or  by  abuse, 
but  by  a  Declaration,  enunciating  in  distinct  propositions  his  own 
Sabbatic  creed.  This  was  the  fitting  answer  of  a  Christian  to  the 
scurrility  of  the  Weeklag ;  and  being  published  when  the  writer 
had  only  two  more  years  to  live,  may  be  regarded  as  his  dying 
testimony  to  opinions,  by  the  advocacy  of  which  he  had  eminently 
promoted  the  religion  and  morals  of  his  country. 

Many  eyes  were  now  turned  to  "Walseus  as  the  individual  who 
ought  to  enter  the  lists  with  Bursius,  or  rather  with  the  redoubtable 
Gomarus.  The  deep  interest  felt  on  the  occasion  appears  from  the 
language  of  Teellinck,  already  quoted,  and  from  that  of  Udemaim, 
both  of  them  distinguished  by  their  zeal  in  the  Sabbatic  cause. 
"  G.  V.  Z.,"  that  is,  we  have  no  doubt,  "Godfrey  Udemann,  Zierik- 

1  Ick  wenschste  macr  alleeue,  etc.  ;  Wai.  Oper.  torn.  ii.  p.  446. 


100  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 


^'  in  a  letter  to  the  Professor,  having  expressed  his  conviction  that 
he  must  have  seen  the  truly  mournful  dirge  of  Mr.  James  Burs, 
which  was  blazoned  in  all  the  book-shops,  having  obtested  him  by 
many  sacred  considerations  to  publish  his  anxiously  looked  for 
Treatise,  and  having  assured  him  that  the  ministers  could  not 
interfere  without  injury,  proceeds  thus  —  "  The  remedy,  under  God, 
is  expected  from  your  Theological  Faculty,  which  can,  with  greater 
authority  and  better  success,  confute  so  impudent  calumnies,  and 
still  the  rising  tempest.  This  man  boasts  that  his  doctrine  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  and  that  others,  who  teach  that  one  of 
seven  days  is  to  be  sanctified,  that  the  Sabbath  is  from  the  begin 
ning,  that  the  Lord's  day  took  its  origin  from  the  Apostles  them 
selves,  that  this  day  is  unchangeable,  etc.,  deliver  opinions,  new, 
erroneous,  dangerous,  Brownistic,  and  unheard-of  by  the  ancient 
Church  and  first  Reformers  —  and  what  not.  You  should  say 
that  some  Nestor  spoke,  or  rather  that  Apollo  from  his  tripod 
poured  forth  his  oracles,  so  haughtily  does  he  assert  his  own 
views,  and  reject  the  views  of  other  men.  I  pass  over  his  sar 
casms  and  numberless  calumnies,  which,  as  many  opine,  merit  for 
his  production  the  title  of  a  Menippean  Satire  rather  than  the 
name  of  a  Lament."1 

The  parents  of  Antonius  Walseus  (1573-1639)  were,  at  the 
capitulation  in  1584  of  his  native  city  Ghent,  to  the  Spaniards, 
compelled  to  quit  it  for  Middleburg.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  when 
attending  his  father,  who  had  collected  a  small  force  to  resist  the 
descent  of  the  Spanish  fleet  on  Walcheren,  and  lying  beside  him 
in  his  tent  at  night  on  a  bed  of  straw,  he  "  perceived,  by  some 
sacred  instinct,  that  he  was  called  to  be  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  God  "  —  a  scene  which  nothing  in  his  future  life  had  power  to 
exclude  from  his  thoughts.  After  a  course  of  training  under  the 
ablest  masters  and  professors  of  the  time,2  and  visiting  the  most 
celebrated  places  on  the  Continent,  he  settled,  in  1602,  as  minister 
of  a  village  church  in  Zealand,  whence  he  was  translated  to  a 


1  Epist.  Sept.  1627,  Wai.  Oper.  torn.  ii.  p.  446. 

2  At  Micldleburg,  Gruterus,  and  Murdisonius,  a  Scotsman,  who  shortly  after  this 
was  promoted  to  a  professorship  in  Leyden  ;  at  Leydcn,  J-mius,  Scaliger,  and  Go- 
marus  ;  at  Geneva,  the  octogenarian  Beza  and  Faius  ;  and  at  Basle,  Grynseus,  Polanus, 
and  Buxtorf. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  101 

similar  charge  in  the  neighbouring  city  of  Middleburg.  There, 
having  for  his  colleagues  Giles  Bursius,  Faukelius,  Teellinck,  and 
others  of  less  note,  he  laboured  for  fifteen  years,  distinguished  as 
a  popular  preacher,  as  a  laborious  minister,  as  a  zealous  promoter 
of  education  and  learning,  and,  latterly,  as  a  leading  man  in  the 
councils  of  the  Calvinists,  and  at  the  Synod  of  Dort,  where  he 
was  employed  in  all  matters  requiring  superior  acuteness,  judg 
ment,  address,  and  powers  of  debate,  and  to  take  part  in  drawing 
up  its  acts  and  canons.  An  individual  so  educated  and  experi 
enced — who  had  been  selected  to  defend  Calvinism  when  it  was 
in  peril,  and  to  fill  a  theological  chair  at  a  critical  juncture — 
whom  Grotius,  his  intimate  friend,  admired,  and  Uitenbogart 
declined  to  encounter  in  discussion,  and  who  was  the  publicly- 
appointed  counsellor  of  Barneveldt  in  prison,  the  president  of  a 
missionary  seminary,  and  one  of  the  translators  of  the  Scriptures 
from  the  original  languages  into  the  Belgic — could  be  no  common 
man  ;  and  it  was  not  surprising,  particularly  as  he  was  known  to 
have  directed  his  attention  to  the  question,  that  his  interference 
should  be  sought  in  the  present  emergency,  and  that  he  should  be 
desired  and  expected  to  apply  his  gifted  mind  to  the  settlement 
of  Sabbatic  differences. 

"Yielding,"  says  his  biographer,  "to  the  importunities  of  his 
admirers,  Walseus  reviewed  what  he  had  previously  presented  in 
his  lectures,  and  extending  it  into  a  treatise,  gave  it  to  the  world, 
to  the  great  joy  of  the  Churches,  who,  as  they  prized  the  learn 
ing  of  Walseus,  so  also  in  the  present  instance  admired  his  wis 
dom."1  Udemann  himself  was  almost  satisfied.  "I  rejoice,"  are 
his  words  in  a  letter  of  March  29,  1628,  "that  your  Treatise 
on  the  Sabbath  has  at  last  been  wrung  from  you,  so  as  to  see  the 
light  among  your  other  learned  lucubrations.  The  brethren  in 
Zealand,  in  general,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  hear,  applaud 
and  thank  you  from  the  heart — at  least,  I  have  as  yet  met  with 
none  who  has  ventured  to  censure.  Your  preface  appears  to  some 
sufficiently  mild,  and  too  guarded  ;  but  I  have  defended  you  as  I 
could,  because,  doubtless,  you  acted  not  without  a  reason,  although, 
to  confess  the  truth,  I  should  have  wished  a  little  more  boldness 
against  those  sciolists  who  set  up  their  own  dreams  for  articles  of 

1  Wal.'Oper.  torn.  i.  ;  Vita,  p.  40. 


102  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

faith.  But  it  was  impossible  for  you,  in  a  matter  so  delicate,  to 
please  all  in  everything.  You  have  laid  the  foundations  soundly 
and  solidly ;  let  others  take  heed  how  they  build  thereon.  A 
translation  into  the  vernacular  language  is  necessary."1 

The  Treatise2  made  its  first  appearance  early  in  1628,  in  Latin, 
"  whence  it  was  translated  into  Dutch  by  Silvius,  pastor  at  Am 
sterdam."  The  accomplished  writer  maintains  the  positions,  that 
the  Sabbath  was  of  primaeval  appointment — that  the  Fourth 
Commandment  is  partly  moral  and  partly  ceremonial — that  the 
ceremonial  part,  which  passed  away  with  the  Mosaic  ritual,  is  the 
obligation  to  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  and 
to  a  more  rigid  rest — that  the  moral  part  is  that  which  has  ever 
demanded,  and  still  demands,  the  consecration  of  a  seventh  por 
tion  of  our  time  to  sacred  rest  and  service — and  that  the  Lord's 
day  is  partly  of  Divine  authority,  in  so  far  as  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment  is  moral,  and  partly  of  ecclesiastical,  yet  apostolic  in 
stitution,  inasmuch  as  the  Apostles,  by  virtue  of  the  extraordinary 
commission  given  to  them  for  settling  the  doctrine  and  laws  of 
the  Church,  and  by  their  example,  altered  the  season  of  rest  and 
worship  from  the  last  to  the  first  day  of  the  week.  He  would, 
it  appears  to  us,  have  consulted  a  nobler  and  scriptural  simplicity 
of  doctrine,  if  he  had  regarded  "the  ceremonial  as  merely  an 
appendage  or  circumstance  which  does  not  enter  into  the  substance 
of  the  law,"  and  if  he  had  affirmed  that  the  Lord's  day  is  of 
Divine  authority,  inasmuch  as  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  has  by 
his  own  example,  and  by  the  inspired  testimony  of  the  Apostles, 
appointed  it  as  the  specific  season  in  which,  under  the  Christian 
dispensation,  we  are  to  appropriate  sacred  time  for  the  purposes 
and  in  the  proportion  required  in  the  Fourth  Commandment. 
But  there  is  no  question,  that  he  has  rendered  very  important 
service  to  the  institution  by  his  unanswerable  arguments  for  its 
antiquity,  and  for  the  enduring  Divine  claim  on  the  seventh  part 
of  man's  time  to  be  consecrated  and  employed  as  prescribed  in  the 
Decalogue. 

The  writer  of  the  author's  life,  after  mentioning  the  pleasure 
with  which  the  Dissertation  was  hailed,  says,  "  Thus  those  billows 

1  Wal.  Oper.  torn.  ii.  p.  472 

8  Dfasertatio  de  Sabbato  seu  vero  sensu  aique  u-su  IV.  -PrcDsepti. 


THE  NETHERLANDS,  103 

of  the  Church  were  assuaged,  and  as  it"  were  broken  in  pieces  on 
the  objected  rock,  and  would  have  entirely  subsided,  if  Gornar 
had  not  believed  that  his  interest  was  concerned  in  not  allowing 
the  things,  which  were  known  to  have  come  from  him,  to  be  soon 
disregarded  ;  wherefore  he  put  forth  a  small  book  on  the  Investi 
gation  of  the  Sabbath.  To  which  Rivet  replied.  Gomar  de 
fended  himself ;  and  although  he  found  very  few  or  no  followers, 
Walseus,  lest  some  ensnaring  things  should  fasten,  treated  in  pub 
lic  lectures  whatever  novelty  might  seem  to  have  been  advanced, 
and  noted  some  things  in  aid  of  his  memory,  with  the  view  of 
printing  an  enlarged  edition  of  his  Treatise — a  purpose,  however, 
the  execution  of  which  was  hindered  by  the  labour  of  the  New 
Testament  version,  and  then  for  ever  arrested  by  the  hand  of 
death.  These  have  been  added  in  a  second  edition  of  his  Dis 
sertation  concerning  the  Sabbath,  posthumously  published.  Thus 
the  differences  in  obscurer  things  are  never  better  settled  than  by 
the  prudence  and  authority  of  a  great  man."1 

In  September  of  the  same  year,  Franciscus  Gomarus  (1563- 
1641),  formerly  Professor  of  Theology  at  Leyden,  along  with 
Arminius,  whose  views  he  then,  and  afterwards  in  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  -so  ably  opposed,  and  now  Professor  of  Hebrew  and  Divinity 
at  Groningen,  gave  to  the  world  his  Investigation,  intended,  he 
said,  to  bring  men  back  to  the  middle  course,  which  had  been 
pointed  out  by  pious  .and  learned  men,  and  which  avoided  equally 
the  Charybdis  of  superstition  and  the  Scylla  of  profaneness.  The 
task,  he  further  said,  was  not  unwillingly  undertaken,  out  of 
deference  at  once  to  the  just  expectation  of  his  hearers,  and  to 
the  honourable  desire  of  many  brethren  in  the  ministry.  The 
Investigation  is  an  attempt  to  show  that  the  Fourth  Command 
ment  prescribed  a  Sabbath  only  for  the  Jews,  the  statute  applying 
to  other  men  only  as  in  a  general  manner  it  required,  at  certain 
and  sufficient  times,  a  holy  vacation  from  mundane  business  and 
cares,  in  subserviency  to  the  ministry  of  the  Divine  word,  the 
public  profession  and  exercises  of  religion,  and  the  recruiting  of 
man's  strength  ;  that  the  general  command  of  a  Sabbath,  recur 
ring  not  less  seldom  than  that  of  the  Jews,  is  obligatory  on  man 
kind,  before  and  after  Christ,  by  the  eternal  law  of  love  ;  that 

1  WaL  O'»er.  torn.  i.  ;  Vita,  p.  40. 


104  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  institution,  taking  its  origin  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  and  re 
newed  at  Sinai,  was  abrogated  by  the  crucifixion  of  Christ, 
though,  in  tenderness  to  the  Jews,  its  use,  with  some  ceremonies, 
was  retained  for  a  time  by  the  Apostles  ;  and  that,  while  it  is 
not  clearly  evident  that  the  Lord's  day,  or  first  day  of  the  week, 
was  appointed  by  the  Apostles  for  the  worship  of  God,  it  yet 
appears,  from  the  general  meaning  of  the  Fourth  Commandment, 
that  it  ought  to  be  observed  in  the  public  worship  of  God,  nor 
can  be  violated  without  the  injury  and  unworthy  scandal  of  reli 
gion.  One  cannot  easily  reconcile  the  author  with  himself  in 
some  of  his  proceedings  on  this  question,  or  the  opinions  in  th& 
Investigation  and  Defence  with  the  creed  of  his  Church,  and  with 
the  common  sense  views  of  Scripture,  which,  there  is  reason  to 
rejoice,  will  ever  overpower  the  crotchets  of  a  few  good  men,  and 
the  perplexing  distinctions  of  the  learned,  who  occasionally  darken 
counsel  by  words  without  knowledge.  It  has  been  remarked  of 
Gomar,  that,  in  the  great  doctrinal  controversy  of  the  time,  he 
directed  his  mind  mainly  to  the  study,  and  brought  extraordinary 
ability  to  the  defence,  of  the  one  article  of  Justification  by  Faith 
— that  criterion  of  a  standing  or  falling  Church.  But  certainly 
his  Sabbatic  efforts,  though  exhibiting  not  a  few  indications  of 
the  learning  in  which  he  excelled,  have  not  added  much  to  his 
reputation,  either  by  their  wisdom  or  by  their  power.  It  is  but 
justice  to  him,  however,  to  recollect  that,  unlike  many  opponents 
of  the  institution,  who  have  claimed  the  patronage  of  his  name 
and  the  use  of  his  arguments,  he  pleaded  for  more,  not  less,  than 
the  sacred  time  of  a  seventh  day,  and  that  as  in  general  morals, 
so  in  Sabbatic  practice,  to  employ  the  words  of  an  admiring 
though  on  the  question  before  us  dissenting  pupil,  he  "bolted 
the  door  against  all  profaneness,  and  was  as  remote  as  possible 
from  worldly  indulgence.1'1 

The  celebrated  Rivet  (Andreas  Rivetus,  1572-1661)  replied  to 
Gomar  in  "  four  or  five  pages  of  his  preelections  on  Exodus  xx.," 
which  were  published  in  March  1632,  and  which  touched  only 
on  the  question  respecting  the  origin  of  the  Sabbath.  Of  this 
point  he  had  treated  in  a  previous  work  on  Genesis,  but  as  Walseus 
and  Gomarus  had  taken  opposite  sides  on  the  question,  he  ern- 

i  Voet  in  Select  Disput.  P  iii.  p.  1242. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  105 

braced  the  opportunity  of  his  forthcoming  commentary  again  to 
show  his  opinion,  in  which  the  Dissertation  of  his  colleague  had 
confirmed  him.  He  vindicates  the  plain  narrative  of  Genesis  from 
the  gratuitous  gloss  which  makes  it  a  proleptical  account,  or  in 
timated  destination,  of  an  institution  which  was  to  be  actually 
appointed  2500  years  after  the  creation,  and  to  be  thenceforward 
during  the  Levitical  economy  sanctified  and  blessed  ;  and  shows 
from  Hebrews  iv.  that  men  had  entered  into  the  Sabbatic  rest 
when  the  world  was  made.  To  his  astonishment,  these  remarks 
called  forth  from  Gomar  an  answer,  under  the  formidable  title  of 
a  Defence  of  the  Investigation,  which  challenged  the  modest  writer 
of  a  few  pages  to  single  combat,  and  having  the  name  of  the  cul 
prit  inscribed  on  the  title-page  majusculis  literis,  was  industriously 
disseminated  in  Amsterdam,  Leyden,  and  in  Zealand  itself.  In  the 
Defence  the  author  specifies  two  questions,  on  the  right  solution 
of  which  depend  correct  views  of  the  Sabbath  :  First,  Whether 
the  institution  was  of  primaeval  origin  ;  and,  Second,  Whether 
one  day  in  seven  is  to  be  observed,  by  authority  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  in  the  worship  of  God.  "  Between  us,"  he  says, 
"  there  is  on  the  second  question  a  manifest  agreement,  but  on  the 
first,  the  bond  of  confidence  and  friendship  remaining  nevertheless 
unimpaired,  there  is  some  difference."  Such  Christian  courtesy, 
which  in  the  Sabbatic  strife  is  not  rare,  it  is  pleasant  to  notice. 
Rivet  resolved  to  be  silent,  "  to  sabbatize,  as  it  were,  on  the  ques 
tion,"  and  no  further  to  contend  with  a  man  whose  age  he  reve 
renced,  and  whose  learning  he  admired  ;  or  if  he  did.  publish  any 
thing,  to  annex  it  at  his  leisure  by  way  of  appendix  to  his  exercises 
on  Genesis  on  which  he  was  then  employed.  He  was  confirmed 
in  this  resolution  by  the  affliction  in  which  the  loss  of  a  son,  and 
of  a  step-son,  had  plunged  him  and  his  family,  and  by  the  opinion 
of  prudent  friends,  who  conceived  that  the  matter  had  been  more 
than  sufficiently  canvassed.  On  paying  a  visit  to  Leyden,  how 
ever,  he  was  urged  by  so  many  and  by  such  arguments  to  take 
the  field  again,  as  to  be  induced  to  abandon  his  purpose,  and  to 
prepare  a  rejoinder,  which  appeared  in  the  same  year,  1633,1  as 
the  Defence,  and  was  afterwards  inserted  in  the  second  edition  of 
his  work  on  the  Decalogue  published  in  1637.  The  rejoinder  is 

1  Dissert,  de  Orig.  Sab.  Cont. ,  Fr.  Gomfirum.  8vo. 


106  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

chiefly  devoted  to  a  learned  and  able  vindication  of  the  Sabbath  as 
a  primaeval  institution —  a  doctrine,  all  opposition  to  which  ought, 
after  the  triumphant  refutations  of  Walseus  and  Rivet,  to  have 
expired  with  Gomar.  On  the  Fourth  Commandment,  and  the 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  day,  our  author  takes  low  ground,  hold 
ing  that  the  commandment  requires  under  the  present  economy 
only  the  consecration  of  some  day — a  sufficient  time  to  sacred 
rest  and  service,  and  that  the  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the 
week  is  an  arrangement  not  necessarily  binding  on  Christians,  but 
entitled  to  respect,  as  having  been  agreed  to  by  the  early  Church 
— an  arrangement  that  may  be  changed  provided  some  necessity 
should  call  for  it  ;  which  necessity,  however,  he  considers  as  pre 
eluded  by  the  already  exercised  moral  right  of  the  Church  to 
choose  her  day  of  worship,  and  by  the  public  authorization  of  the 
Lord's  day.  Here,  as  we  saw  in  Gomar,  and  shall  see  in  Dr. 
John  Prideaux,  is  a  case  in  which  some  peculiar  bias  leads  a  man 
of  the  greatest  learning  and  of  acknowledged  piety,  into  views 
which  respect  for  these  qualities  restrains  us  from  characterizing. 
On  these  points  he  tries  to  defend  himself  against  the  objections, 
and  to  combat  the  opinions  of  John  Robinson,  who  had  in  his 
Just  and  Necessary  Apology  maintained  the  cause  of  the  Sabbath 
on  the  ground  of  a  strictly  Divine  and  immutable  right.  Rivet, 
conscious  that  his  doctrine  needed  it,  cautions  his  readers  against 
using  for  a  cloak  of  licentiousness  the  liberty  which  he  has  asserted 
for  them,  and  recommends  that  the  Lord's  day  be  spent  in  holi 
ness,  rest,  joy  fulness,  and  beneficence.  Dr.  Twisse,  who  has  occu 
pied  some  sections  of  his  volume  on  The  Morality  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  with  a  review  of  Rivet's  Sabbatic  doctrine,  refers 
to  his  practical  application  of  it  in  these  pungent  terms  :  "  As 
for  Dr.  Rivet's  honest  and  pious  instructions  as  concerning  the 
duties  and  our  demeanours  to  bee  performed  on  this  day,  we  may 
easily  perceive  how  little  worth  they  are,  and  how  easily  they 
vanish  into  smoake,  after  that  he  hath  in  the  doctrinall  part  of 
the  Sabbath  layd  so  unhappy  a  foundation,  and  that  by  so  poore 
reasons  and  meane  carriage  of  himselfe,  that  as  I  verily  thinke, 
throughout  all  his  writings  there  is  not  to  be  found  the  like."1 
The  controversy,  so  far  as  it  had  proceeded  before  the  appear- 

i  Pfge  144. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  107 

anee  of  the  last-mentioned  work,  was  ably  reviewed  in  the  Inqui- 
sitio  de  Sabbato  et  Die  Dominico,  which  was  published  in  1633 
at  Fraueker,  where  the  author,  Nathanael  Eaton,  a  native  of  Eng 
land,  was  at  that  time  a  student  in  the  University.  Referring  in 
the  Preface  to  the  Sabbatic  treatises  of  Walseus,  Gomar,  and  Rivet, 
he  says,  "Pondering  each  of  these  works  of  learned  theologians 
with  an  impartial  and  humble  mind,  as  in  all  I  perceived  erudite 
and  instructive  writing,  in  some  I  acknowledged  and  embraced 
truth  ;  so  when  I  thought  that  the  other  was  wanting  in  some 
things,  I  could  not  but  indicate  the  defect  to  his  eager  admirei 
with  a  gentle  and  modest  pen  ;  lest  carried  away  by  the  emptiest 
shadows,  and  by  names  in  the  very  search  of  truth,  he  should  fall 
into  error,  and  embrace  a  cloud  instead  of  Juno."  The  Inqui- 
sitio,  or,  as  it  was  afterwards  named,  Gulielmi  Amesi  Sententice 
de  Origine  Sabbati,  et  Die  Dominico,  comprehends,  like  the  Me 
dulla  of  that  writer,  the  whole  existing  controversy  in  small  space, 
and  passed  in  course  of  time  through  several  editions.  The  second, 
published  in  1653,  is  introduced  with  some  remarks  by  Christian 
Schotanus  (1603-1671),  one  of  the  ministers  of  Franeker,  and 
Professor  of  Greek  and  Church  History  in  its  University,  who  says, 
"  Again  appears  the  judgment  of  our  preceptor,  Dr.  Arnes,  con 
cerning  our  controversies  on  the  Sabbath  and  Lord's  day,  which 
an  excellent  young  man  set  down  in  writing  from  the  mind  of  that 
individual,  and  exhibited  for  public  discussion  many  years  since." 
Disclaiming  the  part  of  a  Palaemon  in  the  strife,  he  adds,  "  I 
am  unwilling  that  this  little  book  should  a  second  time  be  seen 
by  you,  without  a  friendly  word  from  me.  The  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day  ought  to  be  commended  to  all,  and  held  in  such 
honour  as  is  due  to  a  law  of  the  first  table."  In  his  remaining 
remarks,  the  learned  and  excellent  professor  sets  the  institution 
on  its  true  foundation  of  Divine  authority,  and,  distinguishing 
between  the  extremes  of  superstition  and  profaneuess  in  the 
treatment  of  it,  deplores  especially  the  prevalence  of  the  latter 
amongst  those  who,  "  called  the  reformed,  were  yet  in  truth  the 
most  deformed." 

Before  we  turn  our  attention  again  to  England,  the  chief  arena 
of  the  strife,  it  may  be  well  to  trace,  however  rapidly,  the  re 
maining  controversies  in  the  Netherlands.  What  has  been  mini- 


108  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

bered  the  third  of  these,  began  in  1656,  and  was  conducted  by 
four  Professors  of  Theology — Hoornbeek  of  Leyden,  and  Essen  of 
Utrecht,  on  the  one  hand,  who  held  that  the  Fourth  Command 
ment  is  moral,  and  that  the  Lord's  day  is  of  Divine  authority  ; 
Heidan  and  Cocceius  of  Leyden,  on  the  other,  who  maintained 
that  the  Fourth  Commandment  was,  like  circumcision,  merely 
ceremonial  and  Jewish  ;  that  it  never  required  worship,  public  or 
private,  or  anything  but  rest,  and  has  been  repealed  ;  and  that 
the  Lord's  day  is  nothing  more  than  an  old  custom  and  institu 
tion  of  the  Church.  The  following  is  in  substance  the  account  of 
the  origin  and  circumstances  of  the  discussion,  as  given  by  Koel- 
man,  who  was  a  person  of  great  worth,  thoroughly  versant  in 
Sabbatic  history,  and  at  the  time  a  student  at  Leyden.  The 
University  and  Church  of  Utrecht  were  in  a  very  flourishing  state 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  sanctification 
of  the  Sabbath,  strongly  enforced  by  the  ministers,  was  more 
exact  and  conscientious  than  was  aimed  at  in  other  parts  of  the 
Netherlands.  The  students  of  theology,  imbued  with  sound  Sab 
batic  principles,  were  zealous  in  their  efforts  to  make  them  known, 
being  at  the  same  time  well  indoctrinated  in  the  Catechism,  and 
accustomed  to  the  repetition  of  sermons  on  the  Lord's  day.  But 
those  who  had  studied  at  Leyden  were,  for  the  most  part,  not  so 
well-informed  [in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath],  and 
their  practice  was  not  so  uniform.  The  Utrecht  graduates  and 
students,  before  admission  to  the  University  of  Leyden,  were  sub 
jected,  as  Koelman  himself  witnessed  and  experienced,  to  vexa 
tious  examinations  on  the  subject  of  the  institution.  Hoornbeek, 
who  had  in  1653  been  appointed  to  a  chair  in  Leyden,  sympa 
thized  with  the  young  men  in  their  views  and  wrongs.  In  1656, 
he  published  a  work  in  which  he  sought  at  once  to  allay  existing 
differences,  and  to  promote  the  substantial  doctrine  and  sacred 
observance  of  the  Lord's  day.  This,  however,  had  not  the  desired 
effect.  Heidan  wrote  his  Disputatio  de  Sablato  et  Die  Dominico, 
which,  after  being  canvassed  in  public  discussions,  was  translated 
and  printed  in  1658.  It  produced  no  small  disturbance  in  the 
Church.  « The  scandal  thereby  given  and  taken  was  unspeak 
ably  great."  As  an  antidote  to  the  poison  of  a  book  which  was 
in  every  one's  hands,  Essen  published  his  Dissertation  on  the 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  109 

Perpetual  Morality  of  tJie  Decalogue,  first  iu  Latin,  and  then  in 
Dutch.  There  followed  a  variety  of  works  by  Heidan,  Cocceius, 
Hoornbeek,  with  one  by  John  Paschasius,  under  the  nom-de-guem 
of  Nathanael  Johnston,  and  republications  of  treatises  by  Pri- 
deaux,  Broad,  and  Primerose,  the  last  having  been  translated  into 
Dutch.  The  States  interfered  in  1659  to  suppress  the  discus 
sion,  but  a  second  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  Dissertation,  in 
cluding  replies  to  Cocceius  and  his  colleagues,  made  its  appearance 
nevertheless  in  1660.1 

Abraham  Heidanus  (1597-1678)  forms  the  subject  of  a  eulo 
gistic  article  in  Bayle's  Dictionary.  He  wrote,  besides  other 
works,  a  book  on  The  Origin  of  Error,  and  a  Body  of  Divinity, 
the  latter  published  after  his  death.  He  was  dismissed  from  the 
Theological  Chair  for  disobeying  and  publicly  animadverting  on  a 
decree  of  the  curators  of  the  University  forbidding  the  professors 
to  treat  in  any  way  of  certain  disputed  propositions  in  theology 
and  philosophy,  and  of  Descartes's  Metaphysics.  John  Coch, 
or  Cocceius,  by  his  uncommon  acquirements  in  oriental  and  rab 
binical  lore,  was  enabled  to  throw  light  on  the  sacred  page.  But 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  he  did  not  contribute  still  more  to 
darken  it  by  his  views  of  the  Bible,  which  he  regarded  as  through 
out  a  book  of  types  and  of  words  that  ought  to  be  understood 
in  every  possible  sense.2  Agreeably  to  the  former  theory,  though 
inconsistently  with  the  latter,  he  held  that  the  Ten  Command 
ments  were  promulgated  from  Sinai,  not  as  a  law  which  was  to 
be  obeyed,  but  as  one  form  of  the  covenant  of  grace.  John 
Hoornbeek  (1617-1666)  was  born  at  Haarlem.  Having  studied 
at  Leyden,  and  for  five  years  discharged  the  duties  of  the  mini 
stry  at  Mulheiin,  near  Cologne,  he  became  a  professor  of  theology, 
and  afterwards  preacher  also,  at  Utrecht.  Much  against  his  own 
inclination,  and  the  wishes  of  the  magistrates  and  people  there, 
he  removed  in  1653  to  fill  the  same  officee  at  Leyden.  To  elo 
quence,  consummate  ability  in  theological  controversy,  and  high 
integrity,  he  added  extensive  acquaintance  with  languages  and 
science,  which,  with  his  numerous  publications,  attested  the  re- 

1  De  Histoirc,  pp.  284-295. 

a  This  canon — verba  valent,  quod  valere  possunt—vras,  in  presence  of  Cocceius,  applied 
by  a  Jesuit  to  prove  transubstantiation  from  the  words,  "This  is  my  body." — Melch. 
~eyd*ok,  Xynop.  Tlitol  (1689),  p.  37. 

Pi 


110         SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

markable  energy  of  one,  who,  though  of  singularly  noble  form — • 
prceter  dicta,  insiani  corporis  formd  conspicuus — laboured  under 
frequent  attacks  of  disease,  and  died  when  he  had  not  completed 
the  age  of  forty-nine.1  His  ally  in  the  controversy,  Andrew 
Essen  (1618-1677),  a  native  of  Bommel,  in  Guelderland,  after 
receiving  part  of  his  education  there,  and  completing  it  at  the 
Gymnasium  and  University  of  Utrecht,  presided  for  ten  years 
over  the  Church  in  Nederlangbroek.  He  was  transferred  in  1651 
to  the  Church  of  Utrecht,  and  in  1653  appointed  also  one  of  the 
Professors  of  Theology  in  the  University.  He  published  some 
systematic  works  in  Theology,  and  treatises  on  particular  doctrines 
and  controversies.  One  of  his  latest  efforts  was  an  eloquent  and 
affectionate  tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  preceptor,  ^Voetius.2 
Witsius,  in  his  Dissertations  on  the  Creed,  says,  "  Whoever  wishes 
to  see  the  whole  doctrine  of  Episcopius  completely  overthrown 
may  consult  the  accurate  and  solid  Dissertation  on  the  /Subjection 
of  Christ,  by  Andrew  Essenius,  a  man  whom  I  venerate  as  my 
preceptor  and  father  in  the  Lord."3 

That  a  contest  in  which  such  men  were  engaged  should  call 
forth  displays  of  erudition  and  talent  was  to  be  expected.  The 
least  meritorious  of  the  publications  which  it  elicited  were  per 
haps  those  of  Heidan.  He  appears  to  have  performed  his  part 
with  as  much  regard  to  his  own  ease  as  possible,  the  Disputation 
that  made  so  much  noise,  containing  in  its  fifty  small  pages  nearly 
ten  in  succession  of  borrowed  matter,  without  a  single  expression 
of  acknowledgment,  much  less  of  thanks  to  the  author,  soon, 
indeed,  to  be,  if  not  already,  removed  beyond  the  reach  of  this 
world's  censure  or  praise.4  The  share  of  Cocceius  was  consider 
able,  but  its  worth  was  not  a  little  lessened  by  his  fanciful  views 
of  Scripture.  Hoornbeek  and  Essen,  on  the  other  hand,  treated 
the  Bible  as  a  book  of  definite  meanings,  and  as  forming  in  its 

1  Traj.  Erudit.  p.  150,  etc.     Hoffman's  Diet.,  where,  on  the  authority  of  The  Life  of 
Hoornbeek,  it  is  mentioned  that  he  knew  ten  languages,  and  a  little  of  two  others. — 
Eraser's  Witsius  on  the  Creed,  vol.  ii.  p  612. 

2  Traj.  Erudit.  p.  95,  &c. 

8  Dissert,  vii.  sect.  23,  in  Fraser. 

4  The  work  so  unceremoniously  pillaged  was  the  Disput.  de  Die  Dcminico  of  Louis 
Chapelle.  See  Brown's  Causa  Dei,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  896  ;  Koelman  s  De  Histoire,  pp 
289-293 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  Ill 

two  great  divisions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  a  Divine  re 
velation  to  mankind.  Of  the  works  produced  on  the  occasion 
that  have  come  under  our  notice,  the  most  comprehensive  and 
complete  appears  to  be  the  Dissertation  of  Essen,  which  without 
prolixity  exhausts  the  subject  as  then  agitated  ;  and  by  its  rational 
scriptural  views  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  as  well  as  of  the 
Decalogue  at  large,  reminds  us  of  the  best  Sabbatic  writers  of  our 
own  country.  Nor  were  Hoornbeek  and  Essen  less  distinguished 
by  the  spirit  than  by  the  ability  which  they  showed  in  the  dis 
cussion.  They  deported  themselves  entirely  as  became  ministers 
of  the  gospel  and  professors  of  theology.  Heidan  was  bitter  ;  his 
"  sharpest"  passages,  indeed,  were  said  to  be  those  which  he  had 
plagiarized  ;  but  this  fault  he  made,  and  there  was  little  else  in 
the  property  that  he  could  make,  really  his  own.  Cocceius  is 
querulous,  and,  in  his  reply  to  Paschasius,  who  charged  him  with 
following  and  favouring  the  Socinians  in  his  Sabbatic  views, 
wrathful.  Although  he  was  the  decided  opponent  of  Socinian, 
as  he  was  of  Arminian  and  Popish  errors,  yet  the  undue  heat  of 
the  Indignatio,  and  the  feeling  of  uneasiness  betrayed  by  him  in 
other  parts  of  the  discussion,  bespeak  misgivings  as  to  the  good 
ness  of  his  arguments  and  cause.  We  wonder,  indeed,  that  such 
a  cause  and  its  obvious  fruits  in  the  increasing  profaneness  of  the 
people  did  not  induce  a  person,  who,  according  to  Mosheim,  was 
possessed  of  "  piety  in  an  eminent  degree,"  to  pause,  and  thence 
forth  eschew  the  folly  of  conceiving  that  men  can  have  religion 
on  other  days,  who  do  not  devote  one  day  in  seven  to  its  exclu 
sive  study,  and  that  there  is  any  guarantee  for  a  weekly  holy 
day  but  in  the  fact  and  belief  that  it  is  an  express  ordination  of 
Heaven.1 

Four  years  had  hardly  elapsed  when  there  arose  a  fourth  con 
troversy,  attributable  to  Francis  Burmann,  Professor  of  Theology 
and  Pastor  at  Utrecht.  For  a  time  after  his  appointment  to 

1  The  spirit  of  partisanship  descended  from  Cocceius  to  his  son,  who,  in  the  preface 
to  the  collected  works  of  the  former,  imputes  the  blame  of  the  controversy  to  Hoorn 
beek  and  Essen,  proving  it  by  arguments  amounting  to  this — "  My  father  and  his  col 
IflMrue  very  innocently  introduced  the  subject  for  discussion  among  the  students,  and, 
wlien  found  fault  with  by  their  opponents,  who  recklessly  disregarded  the  peace  of  the 
Church  in  so  doing,  must  reply  to  them,  because  '  neither  was  truth  to  be  abandoned, 
Bor  reputation  to  be  thrown  away. '  " 


112  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

these  offices  in  1662  and  1664  respectively,  he  acted  warily  in 
regard  to  the  Sabbath  question,  particularly  in  the  pulpit.  It 
was  not  long,  however,  till  he  proceeded  openly  to  proclaim 
his  views,  which  he  did  in  June  1665,  when,  in  course  of 
lecturing  on  the  second  part  of  the  Catechism,  he  spent  a  great 
part  of  his  hour  in  attempting  to  prove  that  in  the  matter  of 
sanctifying  the  Lord's  day,  we  are  bound  not  by  the  force  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  but  by  a  custom  and  ordinance  of  the 
Church.  Many  were  astonished  and  offended  at  his  doctrine.  To 
others  it  was  acceptable  as  it  "  promised  them  liberty."  The  pro 
fessors  and  ministers  of  Utrecht  were  aggrieved  at  so  flagrant  a 
departure  from  the  principles  which  they  had  so  cordially  held. 
Essen  was  not  slack  to  encounter  the  challenger.  They  engaged 
in  a  series  of  public  disputations.  Thus  far  we  have  followed 
Koelman.1  From  the  publications  issued  on  both  sides,  we  find 
that  the  war  was  carried  to  the  press,  and  learn  the  following 
particulars  respecting  it.  Burmann  published  his  Disquisitio. 
Essen  answered  in  his  AtaAvon?.  In  the  Vindidce  Disquisitionis, 
which  next  appeared,  Burmaun  apprehending,  as  he  said,  that  the 
debate  would  rival  the  fabled  river  of  the  Jews  which  flowed  with 
untiring  rapidity  on  all  days  but  the  Sabbath,  declared  that  ho 
laid  down  his  pen,  not  to  take  it  up  again  nisi  digniores  vindice 
nodi  occurrant,  as  he  envied  no  one,  neither  coveted  the  fancied 
victory  of  having  the  last  word.  Essen  issued  the  Vindidoe  Quarti 
Prcecepti,  so  thorough  and  elaborate  a  discussion  of  the  whole 
question  as  fully  to  warrant  him  in  declining  any  further  ex  pro- 
fesso  reply.  He  did  so,  and  kept  his  promise.  The  other,  rather 
readily  overcoming  his  dislike  to  the  last  word,  came  out  again 
in  Apologia  pro  Vindiciis  Disquisitionis.  When  we  consider  that 
the  whole  controversy  was  comprised  in  the  period  of  about  a 
year,  and  prosecuted  amidst  many  professorial  and  ministerial 
engagements,  we  are  constrained  to  admire  the  activity  and  vig 
our  of  the  two  disputants,  especially  of  Essen,  now  past  his  prime, 
one  of  whose  replies  forms  a  considerable  volume,  and  who  was 
contemporaneously  employed  in  settling  the  arrears  of  his  debate 
with  Heidan.  In  addition  to  energy,  the  praise  of  superior  a£- 
quirements  must  be  conceded  to  both  writers.  But  here  the 

'  De  Histoire,  p.  300 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  113 

resemblance  ends.  While  Essen  brings  independent  thinking  and 
sound  judgment  in  aid  of  his  cause,  Burmami  does  little  more 
than  present  in  attractive  form  and  maintain  with  dialectic  skill 
the  dogmas  of  the  more  original  and  learned  though  crotchety 
Cocceius.  He,  in  other  words,  supports  with  elaborate  but 
tresses,  and  graces  with  ornaments,  a  building  which  has  no 
proper  foundation,  thus  deceiving  some  on-lookers,  and  devolving 
on  men  like  Essen  and  Owen,  the  labour  of  pulling  down  useless 
and  dangerous  fabrics,  and  of  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  when 
they  are  about  to  erect  what  is  solid  and  profitable.  The  cele 
brated  English  writer  just  named,  referring  to  the  discussion  five 
years  after  it  had  taken  place,  says,  that  though  the  objections 
made  to  the  doctrine  of  a  moral  sacred  rest  had  been  "  solidly 
answered  and  removed,"  yet  as  "  they  had  lately  been  renewed 
and  pressed  by  a  person  of  good  learning  and  reputation,"  he 
would  "  give  them  a  new  examination  and  remove  them  out  of 
his  way."  Many  will  agree  with  Owen  that  Essen  effectually 
disposes  of  the  arguments  of  Burmann,  particularly  in  the  Vindi- 
cice  Quarti  Prcecepti,  the  value  of  which  is  enhanced  by  the  evi 
dence  adduced  in  the  latter  half  of  the  volume  to  establish  the 
substantial  harmony  of  the  reformers  and  reformed  churches, 
on  the  great  question  of  a  weekly  holy  day.  In  nothing  has  he 
the  advantage  over  his  opponent  more  than  the  meekness  and 
calmness,  of  which,  it  has  been  said,  he  was  a  rare  example.  That 
his  manifestly  reverent  regard  to  the  eye  of  the  Great  Taskmaster 
should  once  and  again  express  itself  in  the  language  of  prayer  was 
in  perfect  keeping  with  the  other  parts  of  his  consistent  character, 
and  this,  as  well  as  other  considerations,  ought  to  have  repressed 
the  sneer  uttered  towards  the  close  of  the  Apologia,  "  A  prolix 
writing  is  concluded  with  prolix  prayers."  Of  the  sentences  which 
follow  that  remark,  and  which  insinuate,  without  positively  mak 
ing  an  application  to  Essen  of  the  case  in  Ezek.  xiv.  4,  we  will 
only  say,  that  all  readers  of  right  feeling  must  be  ashamed  and 
indignant,  that  such  language  should  be  employed  in  reference  to 
a  minister  of  religion  and  a  professor  of  theology,  whose  general 
character  was  irreproachable,  and  whose  only  apparent  offence  in 
the  present  instance 'was  that  he  held  too  firmly  and  defended  too 
ably  the  doctrine  of  a  Christian  Sabbath. 


114  SKETCHES  0V  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Essen's  lack  of  service  in  taking  no  notice  of  the  Apology  of 
Burmann  was  supplied  with  remarkable  ability.  Matthew  Craw 
ford,  who  afterwards  took  an  able  and  earnest  part  in  the  affairs  of 
his  native  Scotland,  having  finished  his  course  of  the  liberal  arts 
at  a  Scottish  university,  applied  his  mind  to  theological  studies, 
and  having  been  captivated  with  the  writings  of  the  Belgic  divines, 
on  account  of  their  signal  erudition,  and  complete  agreement  in 
doctrine  with  his  own  Church  and  the  Westminster  Assembly,  had 
a  strong  desire  to  place  himself  under  the  tuition  of  some  of  those 
distinguished  men.  He  accordingly  repaired  to  Belgium.1  "  When," 
he  says,  after  visiting  its  cities,  "  I  observed  the  Lord's  day  profaned 
by  labour,  markets,  merchandize,  and  in  other  forms,  I  was  struck 
with  astonishment,  for  never  had  I  seen  the  like  in  Britain.  Nay, 
when  I  understood  that  some  learned  men  in  published  writings 
very  strenuously  contended  that  the  Lord's  day  was  only  of  human 
and  ecclesiastical  obligation,  and  condemned  its  stricter  and  pious 
sanctification,  opinions  which  I  conceived  to  be  the  profane  and 
licentious  doctrine  of  Socinians,  Anabaptists,  and  Enthusiasts,  and 
altogether  unknown  to  the  doctors  of  the  Keformed  Church,  I 
thought  it  nothing  wonderful  that  the  people  profaned  the  Sab 
bath,  and  that  the  magistrates  did  not  punish  them,  such  things 
being  instilled  by  pastors  and  teachers."  Under  the  influence  of 
these  feelings,  and  differing  from  those  who  regarded  the  contro 
versy  as  of  small  moment,  Crawford  wrote  several  "disputations" 
in  defence  of  chap.  21,  sect.  7,  of  the  Westminster  Confession, 
which  he  resolved  to  maintain  under  the  presidency  of  Voet  or 
Essen.  In  June  1669  he  submitted  to  examination,  in  a  discus 
sion  presided  over  by  the  latter,  the  proleptical  theory  of  Genesis 
ii.  2,  3,  which  Professor  Burmann  not  long  before  had  publicly 
advocated.  That  individual,  however,  whose  views  were  assailed, 
though  without  any  mention  of  his  name,  employed  his  powerful 
influence  successfully,  to  quash  the  discussion.2  If  Crawford  spoke 
as  he  afterwards  wrote,  it  was  certainly  not  for  the  credit  of  the 
professor,  or  of  his  opinions,  that  it  should  proceed.  That  the 
interests  of  truth  might  not  suffer,  the  silenced  student  wrote  out 
his  thoughts  on  the  subject  more  fully,  and  published  them.  The 

»  Preface  to  bis  Exeroitatio.  3  Ibid. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  115 

volume1  was  dedicated,  with  much  respect  and  affection,  to  Voetius, 
then  in  his  eighty -first  year,  and  to  Essenius,  Nethenus,  and 
Leusden.  Koelman  said  in  1685,  that  it  had  never,  whether  by 
Burmann,  or  any  other,  been  answered.2 

Another  Scotsman,  who  had  been  resident  in  Holland  since  the 
spring  of  1663,  might  already  be  engaged  in  preparing  his  volu 
minous  work  on  the  Sabbatic  institution,  which  appeared  four  years 
after  the  Exercitatio.  We  refer  to  the  celebrated  Mr.  John  Brown 
of  Wamphray.  Having  for  his  opposition  to  the  restoration  of 
Charles  n.  been  ejected  from  his  parish  and  imprisoned,  he  was, 
in  consequence  of  his  own  representation,  that  his  life  was  in 
danger  from  confinement  in  a  damp  cell,  liberated  on  condition 
that  he  "  obliged  himself  to  remove  and  depart  off  the  King's 
dominions,  and  not  to  return  without  license  from  his  Majesty  and 
Council  under  pain  of  death."  This  good  and  learned  man  passed 
his  remaining  days  in  Holland, — residing  partly  at  Utrecht  and 
partly  at  Rotterdam,  enjoying  the  intimate  friendship  of  Ley  decker, 
Spanheim,  Borstius,  and  k  Brakel,  by  all  of  whom  he  was  highly 
esteemed  for  his  theological  attainments, — and  engaged  in  occasional 
preaching,  corresponding  with  his  friends  in  Scotland,  and  in 
writing  and  publishing  useful  works,  which  the  above-mentioned 
and  other  friends  did  everything  in  their  power  to  circulate.  The 
resentment  of  Charles  followed  him,  and  obliged  him  in  1677  to 
leave  Rotterdam,  where,  however,  after  a  brief  sojourn  in  Utrecht 
or  its  neighbourhood,  he  again  resided  till  his  death  in  1679.3 
His  principal,  though  least  popular  work,  and,  we  should  suppose, 
the  largest  ever  published  on  the  subject,  is  the  De  Causd  Dei 
contra  Anti-Sabbatarios  Tractatus,  or,  Treatise  on  the  Cause  of  God 
against  the  Anti-Sabbatarians,  which  appeared  at  Rotterdam  in 
two  volumes,  the  first  in  1674,  the  second  in  1676.  Prefixed 

1  Exercitatio  Apologetica,  etc.,  Sumptibus  Autoris  1670. 

2  De  Histoire,  p.  315.     Crawford  was  the  editor  of  a  reprint  of  Welch's  Reply  to  Gil 
bert  Brown,  under  the  title  Popery  Anatomized,  and  author  of  A  Discovery  of  the  bloody, 
rebellious,  and  treasonable  principles  and  practices  of  Papists,  both  of  which,  with  an  in 
teresting  life  of  Welch,  also  by  Crawford,  appeared  in  1672.     Wodrow  refers  to  him  as 
preaching  at  a  Communion  administered  at  Kippen  in  1676  in  the  night  season,  and  as 
in  1679  taken  on  trials  for  ordination  as  minister  of  the  parish  of  Eastwood  (Hist.  vol. 
ii.  p.  318 ;  iii.  p.  24.     Ed.-  by  Burns),  where  he  laboured  for  a  considerable  time,  ;uiu 
was  succeeded  by  Woodrow  himself. 

»  Steven's  Scot.  Church,  Rotterdam,  pp.  38,  09. 


116  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

are  approving  notices  by  Professors  Arnold  of  Franeker,  Voet  and 
Essen  of  Utrecht,  and  Spanheim  of  Leyden.  In  an  epistle  dedi 
catory  to  the  Rotterdam  authorities,  Brown  expresses  similar  views 
and  feelings  to  those  of  Crawford,  in  reference  to  the  prevalent 
profanation  of  the  Sabbath  in  Holland,  and  the  encouragement 
given  to  it  by  the  inculcation  in  writings,  catechisings,  and  ser 
mons,  of  opinions  such  as  he  had  never  before  heard  "  even  from 
the  mouths  of  the  most  profligate."  He  sets  forth,  in  their  own 
words,  the  sentiments  of  the  ablest  writers  for  and  against  the 
Sabbath  as  a  moral,  catholic,  perennial,  Divine  institution.  Hence 
the  formidable  extent  of  the  treatise,  and  yet  its  inestimable  value 
to  those  particularly  who  have  not  the  means  of  consulting  the 
original  authors.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  compilation.  Not  the  least 
important  portions  are  the  clear,  able,  and  conclusive  statements 
of  Brown  himself.  Koelman  says,  that  no  part  of  it  was  answered 
by  Burmann.  Neither  he,  indeed,  nor  any  other,  could  be  ex 
pected  to  attempt  a  full  reply  to  a  work  of  such  dimensions.  But 
why  has  it  been  so  little  noticed  by  the  supporters  of  adverse 
views  !  Have  not  some  of  them  felt  that  it  would  injure  their 
cause  to  remit  inquirers  to  the  convincing  arguments  of  such  a 
man,  of  whom  in  his  lifetime  it  was  said  by  one  well  acquainted 
with  him,  and  well  able  to  estimate  his  character  :  "  I  know  no 
minister  alive  (though  the  residue  of  the  Spirit  be  with  Him)  that 
would  fill  his  room  if  he  were  removed  ;"  and  further,  "  If  our 
captivity  were  this  day  returned,  Mr.  Brown,  now  removed  from 
the  Scottish  congregation  of  Rotterdam,  would  by  a  General 
Assembly  be  pitched  upon  to  fill  the  mont  famous  place  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland."1 

Among  the  Dutch  friends  of  Brown  was  the  Rev.  James  Koel 
man,  who,  as  Dr.  Steven  informs  us,  had  been  ejected  from  his 
charge  at  Sluis  in  Flanders  for  refusing  to  observe  the  festival 
days  and  formularies  of  the  Church,  and  sub^uently  devoted 
himself  to  the  publication  of  religious  books,  most  of  which  he 
dedicated  to  his  former  flock.2  What  entitles  him  to  notice  here 
is  the  important  contribution  which  he  made  to  the  Sabbath  con 
troversy  in  three  works  or  parts  of  works,  one  of  them  printed  in 
1683,  the  other  two  in  1685,  and  the  whole  collected  in  a 

i  Ibid.  Letter  of  M'Ward,  pp.  54,  55.  2  Ibid.  pp.  72,  73,  note. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  117 

under  the  common  title,  The  Argument,  History,  and  Practice  of 
the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day.1  The  work  is  second  in  mag 
nitude  only  to  that  of  Brown,  and,  like  it,  is  a  complete  thesaurus 
on  its  subject.  The  arrangement  of  topics,  which  is  indicated  "by 
the  title,  is  happy,  and  each  of  them  receives  its  distinct  and  pro 
portionate  attention.  It  has  a  novel  feature  of  peculiar  interest 
in  the  historical  account  which  it  supplies  of  opinions  on  the  Sab 
bath,  and  of  Sabbatic  controversies  in  England  and  the  Nether 
lands.  Mr.  Koelman  died  at  Utrecht  in  1695.  Dr.  Steven  says, 
that  he  appears  to  have  been  a  very  conscientious,  worthy  man, 
and  that,  besides  being  the  author  of  many  original  and  useful 
publications,  including  one  that  had  for  its  subject  the  festival 
days  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  Netherlands,  he  is  advanta 
geously  known  as  the  able  translator  of  Rutherford's  Letters,  and 
many  other  works,  all  of  which  have  gone  through  several  editions. 
By  his  means  some  of  Brown's  more  popular  writings  were  trans 
lated  into  Dutch,  and  circulated  in  Holland,  previously  to  being 
printed  in  the  English  language.2 

"  The  controversy,"  says  Hengstenberg,  "  was  kept  up  in  Hol 
land  till  the  eighteenth  century,  but  with  greater  calmness.  How 
ever,  the  more  liberal  views  gradually  advanced,  and  became  more 
and  more  prevalent  throughout  the  reformed  churches,  with  the 
exception  of  Great  Britain."3  But  has  not  this  advancing  libe 
ralism  on  the  Continent  been  moral  and  political  retrogression, 
while  British  conservatism  in  respect  of  the  weekly  rest  has  been 
national  progress  ?  Were  not  Holland's  two  centuries  of  greatest 
temporal  glory  "  the  most  glorious  centuries  of  her  Protestantism," 
and  of  her  Sabbath  1  And  is  not  Holland,  where  there  is  more 
respect  for  Divine  institutions  than  in  neighbouring  countries,  the 
dwelling-place  of  a  more  virtuous  and  happy  community  than  Bel 
gium,  France,  or  Germany  ? 

1  Het  Dispuit,  en  de  H'istoire,  etc. 

2  Scot.  Ch.,  Rotterdam,  pp.  72,  73.    It  is  remarkable  that  in  this  instructive  work,  Dr 
Steven  makes  no  mention  of  the  Sabbatic  writings  and  efforts  of  Brown  and  Koelman. 

»  Lord's  Day,  p.  70. 


118  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 


ENGLAND. 

We  now  approach,  a  new  era  in  the  Sabbatic  literature  of  Eng 
land.  The  doctrine  of  the  Church,  which  was  declared  in  1562, 
and  conclusively  settled  in  1571,  recognised  the  Lord's  day  as 
the  divinely  appointed  Sabbath  of  Christianity,  and  as  having  for 
its  rule  the  fourth  precept  of  the  abiding  Decalogue.  This  doc 
trine  continued  to  be  held  in  good  faith,  and  publicly  maintained, 
by  a  succession  of  learned,  excellent  ministers  for  upwards  of  half 
a  century,  only  a  few  professedly  religious  men,  and  these  of  little 
comparative  weight,  daring  formally  to  assail  it.  Such  views 
were  not  peculiar  to  the  Puritans,  but  were  entertained  by  Babing- 
ton,  Hooker,  Andrewes,  Lord  Bacon,  Hall,  and  Bayly,  as  they 
were  by  Fulke,  Cartwright,  Travers,  Greenham,  Perkins,  Bownd, 
and  Willet.1  Hooker,  in  1597,  enunciated  the  noble  and  oft- 
cited  sentence,  "  We  are  to  account  the  sanctification  of  one  day 
in  seven  a  duty  which  God's  immutable  law  doth  exact  for  ever."  2 
About  the  same  time,  in  his  lectures  at  Cambridge,  Andrewes  was 
employed  in  bearing  that  testimony  to  the  primaeval  origin,  the 
morality,  the  permanence,  and  the  entire  sacredness  of  the  weekly 
day  of  rest,  which  is  to  be  found  in  his  posthumous  writings.3 
"  God  demands  and  segregates  for  himself,"  says  Bacon,  "  a  tenth 
of  our  substance,  but  a  seventh  of  our  time."4  Hall,  who  in 
1599  eulogized  the  Treatise  of  Greenham,  was  heard  preaching  in 
1611  the  doctrine  of  which  these  memorable  words  may  be  re 
garded  as  the  sum  : — "  The  Sun  of  righteousness  arose  upon  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  and  drew  the  strength  of  God's  moral  pre 
cept  into  it."5  And  Lewis  Bayly,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  taught, 
when  minister  at  Evesham,  and  subsequently  published  in  his 
Practice  of  Piety,  views  of  the  Sabbath  as  Puritanic  as  those  of 

1  An  interpretation  of  the  articles  and  homilies,  in  which  all  those  writers  concurred, 
is  much  more  likely  to  be  true  than  that  of  Dr.  Heylyn  and  Bishop  White,  who  wrote 
after  the  Second  Declaration  of  Sports  had  appeared,  and  by  the  command  of  its  author. 

2  Works  (1662),  p.  280. 

3  Particularly  his  Pattern  of  Catechistical  Doctrine.    See  Oxford  edit.  O8*6).  PP-  1&4 
etc. 

*  Adv.  of  Learning,  lib.  8,  c.  2,  ad  fin. 

6  Letter  to  Lord  Denny— Works  (1837),  vol.  vi.  p,  270. 


ENGLAND.  119 

Bownd.1  But  in  a  Church  so  trammelled  by  civil  and  hierarchi 
cal  authority,  there  was  little  security  for  the  purity  of  religious 
ordinances.  We  have  seen  how  the  Sabbatic  institution  had 
sometimes  fared  under  Elizabeth  and  her  ecclesiastical  minions. 
A.  worse  fate,  however,  awaited  it  under  her  successors,  James  i. 
and  Charles  I.  Their  reigns,  indeed,  began  with  strong  enact 
ments  against  certain  profanations  of  the  institution  ;  but,  besides 
that  these  measures  were  favourable,  virtually  in  the  one  instance, 
and  avowedly  in  the  other,  to  the  desecration  of  holy  time,  by 
so-called  lawful  amusements,  each  reign  was  signalized  by  a  Book 
of  Sports,  by  growing  severity  against  the  friends  of  a  sacredly 
observed  Sabbath,  and  by  the  complacent  regard  with  which  the 
Court  smiled  on  men  of  more  flexible  consciences,  and  of  more 
congenial  opinions.  But  the  spirit  of  Puritanism  was  not  extinct. 
It  lived  even  under  a  crushing  tyranny,  which  it  soon  acquired 
strength  to  shake  off.  And  nothing  perhaps  contributed  more  to 
overturn  "the  throne  of  iniquity"  than  its  framing  of  mischief 
against  the  holy  Sabbath  by  a  law. 

In  his  Church  History  of  Britain,  Fuller  assigns  to  1632  the 
begun  revival  of  "  the  Sabbatarian  controversy,"  and  represents 
Theophiius  Bradborn  [Brabourne],  a  minister  of  Suffolk  [Norfolk], 
as  having  in  1628  "sounded  the  first  trumpet  to  the  fight." 
Brabourne,  indeed,  uttered  in  1628  a  few  unheeded  notes  ;  but 
various  trumpets  had  previously  sounded. 

The  first  attempt  to  excite  the  overborne  yet  peace-loving  Sab- 
batists  to  further  controversy  was  made  by  Thomas  Broad,  rector 
of  Ketcomb,  who  in  1621  published  his  Three  Questions  on  the 
Fourth  Commandment ;  but  his  instrument  gave  so  tremulous  and 
uncertain  a  sound  as  to  evoke  from  Heylyn  the  taunt  :  "  One 
Thorn.  Broad,  of  Gloucestershire,  had  published  something  in  this 
kind  ;  wherein  to  speak  my  minde  thereof,  he  rather  shewed  that 
he  disliked  those  Sabbath  doctrines  than  durst  disprove  them."2 

1  This  popular  work  had  reached  its  eleventh  edition  by  1619,  and  its  sixty-second 
in  1757.  The  dedication  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  Charles  i.,  is  followed  by 
the  faithful  and  almost  prophetic  distich : — 

Ad  Carolum  Principem. 
Tolle  Malos,  extolle  Pios,  cognosce  Teipsum : 
Sacra  tene  ;  Paci  consule ;  disce  pati, 
•  Gist,  of  the  Sab.  pt.  ii.  263. 


120  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Mi*.  Broad  was  followed  by  Dr.  John  Prideaux,  rectoi  and 
theological  professor  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  and  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Worcester.  By  a  Latin  oration  delivered  in  1622, 
given  to  the  world  along  with  other  discourses  in  1625,  and  pub 
lished  by  Dr.  Heylyn  in  an  English  translation,  with  a  preface,  in 
1634,  he  contributed  to  hasten,  and  subsequently  to  exasperate 
the  renewed  strife.  His  "  Italian  trills"  tickled  the  ears  of  the 
young  men  who  were  attracted  from  all  quarters  to  the  prelections 
of  the  very  learned  and  fascinating  professor,  in  whom  they 
found  the  rare  union  of  the  zealous  Protestant  and  Calvinist  with 
the  anti- Sabbatic  Conformist ;  but  the  trumpet  had  a  compara 
tively  limited  range,  till  the  translator  awoke  it  to  intelligible 
English  strains.  The  discourse  itself  is  unworthy  of  its  author. 
It  is  employed  in  setting  aside,  by  dogmatic  assertion  rather  than 
on  assigned  grounds,  "  the  things  most  surely  believed  among' y 
Christians  generally  respecting  the  Sabbatic  institution,  and  in 
affirming,  without  a  word  as  to  where  he  got  them,  the  proposi 
tions,  that  all  recreations  which  serve  to  refresh  our  spirits  and 
nourish  mutual  neighbourhood,  are  permitted  on  the  Lord's  day, 
and  that  to  such  recreations  it  is  the  exclusive  right  of  the  reli 
gious  magistrate  to  prescribe  bounds  and  limits.1  Sad  it  was  for 
an  eminent  teacher  of  theology  to  authorize  liberties  with  the 
Lord's  day,  which  the  monarch  himself  declined  to  take,2  and  to 
publish  his  license  for  sports  at  a  time  when  the  Government, 
alarmed  at  "  the  quarrels,  bloodsheds,  and  other  great  inconveni 
ences,"  which  such  amusements  had  spread  over  the  land,  ordained 
that  "  no  man  should  use  unlawful  pastimes  in  his  own  parish,  or 
go  out  of  it  for  any  pastime  whatsoever,  on  the  day,  "the  holy 
keeping  of  which,"  as  was  well  said,  "  is  a  principal  part  of  the 
true  service  of  God."3  It  was  not  inconsequence  of  its  own  merit, 
but  that  he  might  compromise  with  the  Puritans,  and  attach  to 
the  measures  of  the  court,  a  man  of  note,  as  well  as,  it  has  been 
said,  to  indulge  a  personal  grudge,  that  Heylyn  was  at  the  pains 

i  Orat.  Inaug.  (1648),  p.  68. 

8  "His  Majesty  (Charles  i.)  is  much  delighted  in  hunting;  it  is  a  recreation  mixt 
with  manly  exercise  well  becoming  a  king ;  but  I  heare  he  never  useth  to  hunt  on  tha 
Lord's  day."— Twisse  on  the  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  Preface,  p.  4. 
»  Nealn's  Feasts  and  Fasts,  pp.  230,  231. 


ENGLAND.  121 

to  translate  and  epitomize  the  performance  ;  and  it  was  to  neutra 
lize  the  influence  of  such  a  name  that  Twisse,  after  construing  some 
parts  of  the  work  favourably,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  Sabbath, 
overpowered  with  calm  argumentation  the  remainder.1 

A  posthumous  treatise,  by  Robert  Cleaver,  already  mentioned  as 
associated  with  John  Dod  in  various  publications,  appeared  in  1625, 
and  again  in  1630,  under  the  title,  "  A  Declaration  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath  :  wherein  the  Sanctifying  of  the  Lord's  Day  is  proved  to 
be  agreeable  to  the  Commandment  of  God,  and  to  the  Gospell  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Whereunto  is  added  a  briefe  Appendix  touching  the 
limits  of  the  C.  S.,  the  Lord's  Day  :  that  it  beginneth  and  endeth 
after  Midnight,  not  after  the  Sunne  Setting  in  the  Evening."2 

The  example  of  the  Rector  of  Exeter  College  was  not  without 
its  re-inspiring  influence  on  the  Rector  of  Retcomb,  who,  after  a 
lapse  of  six  years,  had  acquired  sufficient  breath  and  nerve  to 
emit,  though  in  outlandish  tones  which  he  had  not  practised  for 
years,3  a  bold  defiance  to  the  whole  race  of  Sabbatarians.  In  a 
Latin  treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  which  appeared  in  1627,  Broad 
attempted,  in  opposition  to  clear  Scripture,  the  creed  of  his 
Church,  and  the  facts  of  history,  to  establish  the  propositions,  that 
it  is  one  thing  for  God  to  sanctify  a  day,  and  another  to  command 
its  sanctification  by  men, — that  weeks,  a  division  of  time  bounded 
and  constituted  by  the  Sabbath,  are  not  mentioned  prior  to  the 
Exodus, — that  as  the  Fourth  Commandment,  which  was  cere 
monial,  has  been  abrogated,  it  cannot  bind  us  to  the  sanctifica 
tion  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  could  not  so  bind  us  even  if  it  were  in 
force  ;  and  though  all  pious  and  learned  men,  as  far  as  he  knew, 
were  of  the  mind  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  should  be  sancti 
fied,  there  is  no  command  of  Christ  or  of  his  apostles  to  that 
effect,  no  fault  is  found  by  them  with  those  who  neglect  it,  and 
no  religion  must  be  placed  in  the  observance  of  times.  It  was  a 
fitting  result  of  the  writings  of  Broad  and  Prideaux,  that  Dr. 
Robinson,  afterwards  Archdeacon  of  Gloucester,  publicly  main- 

1  See  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  p.  187,  etc. 

2  We  have  not  read  this  volume,  which,  we  suppose,  is  now  rare.    The  title  is  given 
from  the  second  edition,  which  we  have  seen  in  the  Marsh  Library,  Dublin.    Both  edi 
tions  are  marked  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  Bodleian. 

8  Ignoscat  Lector  stilo  minus  eleganti :  annus  enim  jam  agitur  viceslmus  quartus  ex 
quo  lingua  Latina  vel  decem  tantum  lineas  exaravi.     Tract  dt  Sab.  Preefatiunc. 


122  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

tained  at  Oxford  in  1628  the  thesis,  that  recreations  on  the  Lord's 
day  are  not  at  all  prohibited  by  the  Word  of  God.1 

Nor,  as  extremes  meet,  was  it  an  unconnected  sequence  of 
writings,  which  explained  away  the  Fourth  Commandment,  that 
Brabourne  was  excited  to  such  zeal  on  its  behalf  as,  in  A  Dis 
course  upon  the  Sabbath-day,  published  in  1628,  to  urge  the 
claims  of  the  last  day  of  the  week  to  be  accounted  the  Sabbath  of 
Christians.  This  work  seems  to  have  come  into  any  notice  only 
in  consequence  of  the  celebrity  which  circumstances  gave  to  a  sub 
sequent  production  of  the  same  author.  Brabourne,  who  followed 
Traske  in  his  Sabbatarianism  as  he  did  in  his  retractations,  if  his 
equal  in  ability  was  his  inferior  in  the  qualities  of  the  heart. 

An  attempt  by  Edward  Brerewood,  the  first-appointed  Profes 
sor  of  Astronomy  in  Gresham  College,  and  a  learned  writer,2  to 
engage  the  no  less  learned  Nicholas  Byfield,  minister  of  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Chester,  in  a  conflict  on  the  subject,  has  not  yet  been 
mentioned,  because,  though  the  challenge  and  the  assault  belonged 
to  the  year  1611,  they  had  not,  as  Fuller  might  say,  become 
trumpet-tongued  till  1630,  when  the  parties  had  for  sometime 
been  silent  in  the  dust.  In  the  latter  year,  an  oflicious  publisher 
issued  A  Learned  Treatise  of  the  Sabaoth,  consisting  of  an  angry 
epistle  from  Mr.  Brerewood  to  Mr.  Byfield,  with  a  brief  reply  by 
the  latter  and  a  rejoinder  by  the  former.  The  circumstances  of 
this  correspondence  were  singular.  The  Professor,  deceived  by  a 
worthless  nephew,  who  pretended  that  having  been  converted  by 
Mr.  Byfield  to  strict  views  of  Sabbath-keeping,  he  could  not  con 
scientiously  remain  in  a  situation  where  he  was  required  to  per 
form  certain  unnecessary  works  on  the  Lord's  day,  wrote  to  the 
minister  of  St.  Peter's  a  formidable  letter  extending  in  print  to 
fifty  quarto  pages,  in  which  he  poured  out  bitter  reproaches,  main 
tained  extraordinary  opinions,  and  insisted  that  the  man  who  had 
wronged  him  should  give  him  the  satisfaction  of  a  rencounter,  not 
certainly  with  rapiers,  but,  according  to  Fuller's  expression,  by 
"  brandishing  pens."  Byfield,  in  his  brief  reply,  repudiated  the 
charges,  disclaimed  the  obligation  to  "  answere  every  stranger's 

1  Heylyn's  Hist,  of  the  Sab.  Pt.  ii.  p.  263. 

2  He  wrote  Enquiries  touching  the  Diversity  of  Languages  and  Religions,  1622  ;  De  Pan* 
tieribus  et  Pretiit  vet  Nunmorum,  1614,  with  other  "-vorks. 


ENGLAND.  123 

vaine  challenge,"  and  having  declared  his  Sabbatic  creed,  declined 
the  controversy.  It  appears,  ho-wever,  that  the  reiterated  accu 
sations,  demands,  and  strange  doctrines  of  the  Professor,  in  his 
Rejoinder,  had  compelled  the  aggrieved  minister  to  forego  his 
purpose  of  silence,  and  that,  according  to  the  belief  of  his  brother, 
an  answer  was  in  the  hands  of  the  publisher,  who  suppressed  it.1 
When  in  these  writings  of  Mr.  Brerewood  we  find  him  indulging 
"  proud  wrath,"  and  stoutly  asserting,  that  the  moral  part  of  the 
Sabbath  became  on  Sinai  one  of  the  perpetual  words,  not  before  ; 
that  it  is  incompatible  with  the  goodness  of  God  to  give  to  a  man 
a  command  which,  through  the  wickedness  of  other  men,  he  can 
not  keep  without  being  punished  for  his  obedience  ;  and  that  as 
the  Fourth  Commandment  is  given  to  the  master,  not  to  the  ser 
vant,  the  performance  of  secular  work  by  the  latter  on  the  Lord's 
day  in  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  former  is  the  sin  not  of  the 
servant  but  of  the  master, — we  may  say,  that  however  versant  in 
astral  matters,  or  in  the  old  coins,  languages,  and  even  religions, 
of  this  lower  world,  he  was  not  much  at  home  on  the  subject  of 
moral  obligation,  or  eminently  fitted  by  his  studies  or  temper  for 
religious  controversy.  It  is  but  justice,  however,  to  note  that  he 
felt  relentings  towards  the  good  man,  whom  he  had  unworthily 
treated,  and  under  whose  ministry,  with  the  excellent  John  Bruen 
as  his  fellow-worshipper,  he  occasionally  sat ;  and  that  his  second 
Treatise  on  the 'Sabbath,  which  appeared  in  1632,  though  not 
improved  in  its  sentiments,  is  free  from  the  faults  of  heat  and 
abuse  which  disfigured  the  first.  As  for  Nicholas  Byfield,  he  has 
the  honour  to  belong  to  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses,"  who  by  their 
character  have  attested  the  truth  of  their  Sabbatic  opinions,  which, 
like  other  opinions,  are  "  known  by  their  fruits."  As  a  minister 
in  Chester,  and  afterwards  as  vicar  of  Isleworth  in  Middlesex, 
where  he  died,  "  he  was  a  constant,  powerful,  and  useful  preacher, 
a  thorough  Calvinist,  a  nonconformist  to  the  ceremonies,  and  a 
strict  observer  of  the  Sabbath.  By  his  zeal  for  the  sanctification 
of  the  Lord's  day,  his  labours  in  the  ministry,  and  his  exemplary 
life,  religion  flourished,  many  were  converted,  and  Puritanism 
gained  ground."  2  He  was  the  author  of  Expository  Sermons  on 

1  R.  Byfield's  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  Vindicated,  p.  191. 
•  Brook's  Puritans,  vol.  ii.  p.  297. 


124  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  and  other  parts  of  Scripture,  which 
obtained  for  him  a  place  in  the  Ecclesiastes  of  Bishop  Wilkins, 
among  the  most  eminent  of  our  English  commentators  and  writers 
on  "  Practical  Divinity."  1 

An  ample  and  able  reply  to  Brerewood  made  its  appearance  in 
1631,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  Vindicated, 
by  Kichard  Byfield,  pastor  in  Long  Ditton  in  Surrey."  The  author 
was  half-brother  of  Nicholas,  and  one  of  the  2000  ministers  who 
were  ejected  in  1662.  Referring  to  "The  Learned  Treatise,"  he 
says,  "  When  I  first  received  this  booke,  a  little  before  November 
last,  though  I  was  utterly  ignorant  of  any  such  controversie  to 
have  passed  between  my  brother  and  Master  Edward  Breerwood, 
and  had  not  yet  cast  mine  eye  on  the  base  language  of  the  reply 
in  the  end  of  the  Treatise,  yet  the  very  noveltie,  and  dangerous 
vilnesse  of  the  doctrine,  without  any  reference  to  things  personall, 
strucke  me.  My  spirit  was  stirred  in  ine,  when  I  saw  the  whole 
right  of  the  Law  for  the  time  of  God's  worship  alleviated,  the 
consequence  whereof  must  needs  be  this,  the  whole  kingdome 
wholy  given  to  Atheisme  and  profanenesse."  He  proceeds  to  show, 
that  the  Fourth  Commandment  is  given  to  the  servant  and  not  to 
the  master  only ;  that  the  commandment  is  moral ;  that  our  own 
light  works,  as  well  as  gainful  and  toilsome,  are  forbidden  on  the 
Sabbath  ;  that  the  Lord's  day  is  of  Divine  institution ;  and  that 
the  Sabbath  was  instituted  from  the  beginning  ;  doctrines  to  be 
found  in  the  Homilies,  and  in  the  almost  universal  creed  of 
Christendom. 

The  intrepid,  if  not  always  discreet  Henry  Burton,  rector  of  St. 
Matthew's,  Friday  Street,  London,  had  published  several  works 
against  Popery,  for  which  he  was  subjected  in  every  instance  to 
trouble  by  the  ruling  prelates,  and  in  one  of  the  cases,  to  suspen 
sion  from  his  benefice.  But  the  man  who,  referring  to  his  various 
citations  before  Laud,  could  say,  "  I  was  not  at  any  time  before 
him,  but  methought  I  stood  over  him  as  a  schoolmaster  over  his 
schoolboy,  so  great  was  the  goodness  of  God  upon  me,"  2  was  not 
to  be  deterred  by  any  danger  from  contending  for  the  sanctity  and 
Divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath,  which  he  did  in  The  Law  and 

1  Eccles.  [1693],  pp.  97, 101,  10S. 

8  A  Narration  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Henry  Burton,  p.  T. 


ENGLAND.  125 

the  Gospel  Reconciled  (1631),  and  in  Sermons  for  God  and  the 
King  (1636).  Among  the  charges  brought  against  him  in  the 
High  Commission  were  these  :  that  he  had  spoken  against  the 
putting  down  of  afternoon  sermons  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  against 
the  setting  up  of  crucifixes.  It  was  on  account  of  such  acts  as 
these,  by  which  he  sought  to  stem  the  tide  of  corruption  in  the 
Church  and  State,  and  not  on  account  of  disaffection  to  the  Go 
vernment,  for  he  loved  his  King  and  the  Constitution,  that  he  was 
condemned  to  a  series  of  grievous  wrongs,  and,  along  with  Prynne 
and  Bastwick,  to  savage  indignities,  which  it  is  impossible  even  to 
read  of  without  horror. 

It  was  not  in  1628,  as  Fuller  states,  but  in  1632,  that  Theo- 
philus  Brabourne  "set  forth  a  book,  dedicated  to  his  Majesty, 
entitled,  A  Defence  of  that  most  Ancient  and  Sacred  Ordinance  of 
God's,  tJie  Sabbath-day."  This  was  a  larger  work  than  his  Dis 
course  of  1628  on  the  same  subject ;  and  if  the  author  on  neither 
occasion  "  sounded  the  first  trumpet  to  the  fight,"  he  yet,  by  his 
second  publication,  blew  a  blast  in  the  ear  of  royalty  itself,  which 
compelled  attention,  and  provoked  immediate  as  well  as  lasting 
hostilities.  In  the  Defence,  after  laying  down  the  position,  that 
the  Fourth  Commandment  is  simply  and  entirely  moral,  contain 
ing  nothing  legally  ceremonial  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  ought 
therefore,  in  its  full  force  and  virtue,  to  be  obeyed  to  the  world's 
end,  he  proceeds  to  affirm  that  the  Saturday,  or  seventh  day  of 
the  week,  ought  to  be  an  everlasting  holy  day  in  the  Christian 
Church,  the  religious  observation  of  which  day  obligeth  Christians 
under  the  Gospel,  as  it  did  the  Jews  before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
and  that  the  Sunday,  or  Lord's  day,  is  an  ordinary  working  day, 
which  it  is  superstition  and  will-worship  to  make  the  Sabbath  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment.  "  I  am  tied  in  conscience,"  were  his 
words,  "  rather  to  depart  with  my  life  than  with  this  truth ;  so 
captivated  is  my  conscience  and  enthralled  to  the  law  of  my  God."1 
The  "  pride,"  however,  which  was  thus  confident,  "  went  before  a 
fall."  He  was  called  before  the  Court  of  High  Commission, 
where,  according  to  Bishop  White,  "  there  was  yeelded  unto  him 
a  deliberate,  patient,  and  full  hearing,  together  with  a  satisfactory 
answer  to  all  his  maine  objections."2  The  result  of  this,  and  of 

i  Defence,  Dedication,  p.  1.  2  Treatise  of  the  Sabbath  Day,  Dedication,  p.  24 


L^Q  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

a  private  conference,  was  a  confession  made  in  "  a  publike  and 
honourable  audience,"  that  "  his  position  touching  the  Saturday 
Sabbath  was  a  rash  and  presumptuous  error,"  and  "  the  Sunday, 
or  Lord's  day,  is  an  holy  day  of  the  Church,  yea,  and  a  most 
ancient  holy  day,  and  very  honourable,"  with  a  humble  submission 
unto  his  holy  Mother,  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  promise, 
"  I  will  ever  hereafter  carry  myselfe  as  an  obedient  sonne,  in  all 
peaceable  and  dutifull  behaviour  to  my  Mother  the  Church,  and 
to  the  godly  fathers  and  governors  thereof."1  It  was  a  confirma 
tion  of  the  proverbial  ardour  of  new  converts,  that  the  penitent 
had  scarcely  left  the  Commission,  when  he  handed  to  one  of  its 
members  a  breviate,  charging  the  Puritans  with  having  led  him 
astray,  a  charge  which  the  bishop  was  not  slack  to  re-echo,  both 
he  and  Brabourne  himself  being  willing  that  the  latter,  though  a 
man  of  no  mean  parts,  should  pass  for  a  simpleton,  in  order  to 
excite  against  a  harmless  but  hated  class  the  already  overheated 
zeal  of  the  authorities.2  There  was  something  suspicious  in  such 
a  conversion.  A  partial  writer  says  all  that  could  be  said  in  its 
justification,  and  it  is  little  :  "  For  some  reason,  it  is  not  possible 
to  ascertain  distinctly  what,  though  probably  he  was  overawed  by 
the  character  of  the  assembly,  he  signed  a  recantation,  and  went 
back  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  Nevertheless,  he  continued  to 
assert,  that  if  the  Sabbatic  institution  be  indeed  moral  and  per 
petually  binding,  the  seventh  day  ought  to  be  sacredly  kept."3 
We  are  informed  by  Dr.  Collinges  of  what  appear  to  have  been 
the  latest  opinions  of  Brabourne,  who,  he  says,  "  came  to  assert 
three  Gods,  and  grew  to  keep  no  Sabbath,  making  bargains,  etc., 
on  his  Sabbath."4 

We  may  here  adopt  the  words  of  Fuller  :  "  Pass  we  now  from 
the  pen  to  the  practical  part  of  the  Sabbatarian  difference.  Somer 
setshire  was  the  stage  whereon  the  first  and  fiercest  scene  thereof 
was  acted.  Here  wakes  (much  different,  I  daresay,  from  the 
watching  prescribed  by  our  Saviour)  were  kept  on  the  Lord's  day, 
with  church-ales,  bid-ales,  and  clerk' s-ales."  The  wakes  had  their 
origin  in  the  festivals  instituted  in  memory  of  the  dedication  of 
churches,  and  were  kept  on  the  Lord's  day  before  or  after  the 

i  Treatise  of  the  Sabbath  Day,  pp.  305-7.  2  Ibid,  pp.  307,  808. 

«  Davy's  ffist  of  the  Sabbatar.  Churclws,  p.  127.  *  Modest  Plea,  p.  74. 


ENGLAND.  127 

memorial-day  of  the  saint  to  whom  the  churches  were  dedicated, 
because  the  people  had  not  leisure  to  observe  them  on  the  week 
days.  The  object  of  church-ales  was  to  raise  money  for  repairing 
churches,  and  for  the  poor  by  means  of  benevolences  collected  after 
divine  service  at  pastimes  in  the  churchyard,  or  at  drinkings  and 
merry-makings  in  the  public-house.  Clerk-ales  were  for  behoof  of 
the  parish-clerk,  to  whose  house  the  parishioners  sent  provisions, 
and  then  came  on  Sundays  to  feast  with  him,  "  whereby  he  sold 
more  aie."  A  bid-ale  was  a  Sunday's  feast,  at  which  contribu 
tions  were  made  by  his  friends  for  the  setting-up  again  of  some 
decayed  brother.1 

In  1631,  while  going  the  Western  Spring  Circuit,  the  Lord 
Chief-Justice  (Sir  Thomas  Richardson)  and  Baron  Denham,  were 
importuned  by  the  gentry  in  Somersetshire  "  to  make  a  severe 
order  for  the  suppressing  of  all  ales  and  revels  on  the  Lord's  day." 
They  accordingly  issued  such  an  order,  requiring  the  minister  of 
each  parish  to  publish  it  on  three  several  Sundays  every  year. 
On  "  the  return  of  the  circuit,"  Judge  Richardson  punished  cer 
tain  persons  who  had  violated  the  order,  and  gave  a  second  strict 
charge  against  the  revels.  Laud  complained  to  the  King  of  the 
judge's  proceedings  as  an  invasion  of  the  episcopal  jurisdiction, 
whereupon  Richardson  was  summoned  before  the  Council.  Al 
though  he  pleaded  that  the  order  was  issued  at  the  request  of  the 
justices  of  the  peace,  with  the  consent  of  the  whole  Bench,  and 
adduced  precedents  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles 
himself,  in  vindication  of  his  conduct,  he  received  a  reprimand, 
and  was  peremptorily  enjoined  to  revoke  his  order  at  the  next 
assizes,  which  he  complied  with,  he  said,  "as  much  as  in  him  lay." 
In  a  letter  to  Pierce,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  requiring  further 
information  respecting  the  manner  in  which  the  church-feasts  were 
"ordered,"  Laud  observed,  "While  his  majesty  conceives,  and 
that  very  rightly,  that  all  outrages  or  disorders  at  those  feasts  may 
and  ought  to  be  prevented  by  the  care  of  the  justices  of  the  peace, 
the  feasts  themselves  ought  to  be  kept  for  the  neighbourly  meeting 
and  recreation  of  the  people,  of  which  he  would  not  have  them 
debarred  under  any  frivolous  pretences."  The  bishop,  in  his  reply, 
stated,  that  the  suppression  of  the  feasts  was  very  unacceptable, 

1  Bishop  Pierce,  in  Neal's  Puritans  (1837),  vol.  i.  pp  559,  580. 


128  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

and  that  the  restitution  of  them  would  be  very  grateful  to  the 
gentry,  clergy,  and  common  people  ;  mentioned  that  he  had  "  pro 
cured  the  hands  of  seventy-two  of  his  clergy  "  in  their  favour,  and 
might  have  had  a  hundred  more,  but  was  satisfied  with  the  num 
ber,  being  that  of  the  translators  of  the  Old  Testament  into  Greek, 
and  recommended  the  Sunday  recreations  ;  because,  besides  other 
reasons,  they  brought  the  people  more  willingly  to  church,  tended 
to  civilize  them,  and  compose  differences,  and  served  to  increase 
love  and  beneficence.  On  the  other  hand,  the  justices  of  the  peace 
addressed  a  petition  to  the  King  for  the  suppression  of  the  revels, 
which,  they  said,  had  introduced  not  only  a  great  profanation  of 
the  Lord's  day,  but  riotous  tippling,  contempt  of  authority,  quar 
rels,  murders,  with  other  evils,  and  were  very  prejudicial  to  the 
peace,  plenty,  and  good  government  of  the  country.1  "  Here," 
according  to  Neal,  "  we  observe  the  laity  petitioning  for  the  reli 
gious  observation  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  bishop,  with  his 
clergy,  pleading  for  the  profanation  of  it."2  Laud  was  raised  to 
the  primacy,  August  16,  1633.  His  letter  to  Bishop  Pierce  was 
dated  October  4th  of  the  same  year.  And  a  fortnight  had  not 
elapsed  ere  the  Second  Declaration  of  Sports  appeared. 

This  document,  after  narrating  the  grounds  and  proceedings  of 
James  in  issuing  his  Declaration  of  1618,  and  repeating  the  De 
claration  itself  word  for  word,  says,  "  Now  out  of  a  like  pious  care 
for  the  service  of  God,  and  for  suppressing  of  any  humors  that 
oppose  truth,  and  for  the  ease,  comfort,  and  recreation  of  our  well- 
deserving  people,  we  do  ratify  and  publish  this  our  blessed  father's 
Declaration  ;  the  rather  because  of  late  in  some  counties  of  our 
kingdom,  we  find  that  under  pretence  of  taking  away  abuses,  there 
hath  been  a  general  forbidding,  not  only  of  ordinary  meetings, 
but  of  the  feasts  of  the  dedication  of  the  churches,  commonly  called 
wakes.  Now,  our  express  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  these  feasts, 
with  others,  shall  be  observed,  and  that  our  justices  of  the  peace, 
in  their  several  divisions,  shall  look  to  it,  both  that  all  disorders 
there  may  be  prevented  or  punished,  and  that  all  neighbourhood 
and  freedom,  with  manlike  and  lawful  exercises,  be  used.  And 
we  farther  command  our  justices  of  assize  in  their  several  circuits, 
to  see  that  no  man  dare  trouble  or  molest  any  of  our  loyal  and 

1  Fuller  and  Neal,  under  A.D.  1633.  3  Neal  (1837),  vol.  '.  p.  560. 


ENGLAND.  1 29 

dutiful  people,  in  or  for  their  lawful  recreations,  having  first  done 
their  duty  to  God,  and  continuing  in  obedience  to  us  and  our  laws. 
And  of  this  we  command  all  our  judges,  justices  of  the  peace,  as 
well  within  liberties  as  without,  mayors,  bailiffs,  constables,  and 
other  officers,  to  take  notice  of  and  to  see  observed,  as  they  tender 
our  displeasure.  And  we  farther  will,  that  publication  of  this  our 
command  be  made,  by  order  from  the  bishops,  through  all  the 
parish  churches  of  their  general  dioceses  respectively.  Given  at 
our  Palace  of  Westminster  the  eighteenth  day  of  October,  in  the 
ninth  year  of  our  reign.  God  save  the  King."1 

The  Declaration  "  struck  the  sober  part  of  the  nation  with  a 
kind  of  horror ;  and  the  severe  pressing  of  it  made  sad  havoc 
among  the  Puritans  for  seven  years."  While  some  of  the  clergy 
devolved  the  publishing  of  the  document  on  their  curates,  and 
others,  after  reading  it,  pronounced  the  words  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment,  or  preached  against  the  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day, 
a  large  class,  estimated  at  800,  positively  refused  to  pollute  their 
lips  with  the  utterance  of  the  order,  and  were  in  consequence  sus 
pended,  driven  from  their  livings,  excommunicated,  prosecuted  in 
the  Court  of  High  Commission,  or  forced  to  leave  the  kingdom.2 
Let  one  case  show  the  manner  in  which  that  foolish  and  wicked 
edict,  having  an  archbishop  for  its  most  zealous  abettor  and  most 
effective  executioner,  if  not  its  instigator,  was  employed  as  an 
engine  of  oppression  and  mischief  against  innocent  men,  and  many 
of  the  best  of  England's  ministers.  It  is  the  case  of  Thomas 
Wilson,  A.M.,  minister  of  Otham,  in  Kent,  so  admirable  a  speci 
men  of  his  class  as  might  have  drawn  from  any  bishop  possessed 
of  a  spark  of  religion  or  common  sense,  the  aspiration  as  to  his 
clergy,  0  si  sic  omnes  I  On  declining  to  read  the  Declaration, 
Mr.  Wilson  was  sent  for  to  Lambeth,  when  he  was  examined  on 
this  among  various  charges  :  "  You  refused  to  read  the  King's 
Declaration  for  Sports  on  Sundays,  and  spoke  disdainfully  to  the 
apparitor  and  officer  of  the  Court."  His  reply  was,  "  I  said  to 
the  apparitor,  '  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy  ;'  and 
I  said  no  more.  I  refused  to  read  the  book,  not  out  of  contempt 
of  any  authority,  being  commanded  by  no  law.  The  King's  Ma 
jesty  doth  not  in  the  book  command  or  appoint  the  minister  to 

1  Wflk.  Concil.  vol.  iv.  pp.  483,  484.  2  Neal  (183?),  vol.  L  pp.  561-664. 

I 


130  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

read  it,  nor  it  to  be  read,  but  published.'  And  seeing  there  is  no 
penalty  threatened,  nor  authority  given  to  any  one  to  question 
those  who  refuse  to  read  it,  my  refusal  to  read  it  was  upon  suffi 
cient  grounds  of  law  and  conscience  ;  which,  for  the  satisfaction 
of  this  high  Court,  and  to  clear  myself  from  contempt,  I  shall 
briefly  express  thus  :  His  Majesty's  express  pleasure  is,  that  the 
laws  of  the  realm,  and  the  canons  of  the  Church,  be  observed  in 
all  places  of  the  kingdom,  and  therefore  at  Otham,  in  Kent ;  but 
this  book,  as  I.  conceive,  is  contrary  to  both.  It  is  contrary  to 
the  statute  laws  ;  it  is  contrary  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws  ;  it  is 
contrary  to  the  Scriptures ;  it  is  contrary  to  the  Councils  ;  it  is 
contrary  to  divines,  ancient  and  modern  ;  it  is  contrary  to  reason." 
No  sooner  was  this  part  of  the  defence  concluded,  than  the  Arch 
bishop  said,  "  I  suspend  you  for  ever  from  your  office  and  benefice 
till  you  read  it ;"  and  Mr.  Wilson  continued  suspended  for  the 
space  of  four  years.1  It  has  been  said  of  this  excellent  man  : 
"  What  he  preached  on  the  Lord's  day  he  practised  all  the  week. 
He  was  a  strict  observer  of  the  Sabbath,  and  eminently  successful 
in  promoting  the  same  practice  among  his  people  at  Maidstone,  as 
well  as  at  other  places,  one  of  the  judges  having  publicly  declared, 
that  in  all  his  circuit  there  was  no  town  where  the  Lord's  day  was 
so  well  observed."2 

The  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  hundreds  of  Puritan  ministers 
were  not  the  only  or  greatest  mischief  of  a  Declaration,  which, 
setting  at  nought  the  Sabbatic  doctrine  and  law  of  the  Church, 
and  being,  in  fact,  as  it  has  been  termed,  a  royal  invitation  to  the 
people  to  give  themselves  up  to  dissipating,  riotous,  and  intem 
perate  diversions  on  a  day  sacred  to  sobriety,  did  incalculable 
damage  to  the  religion  and  morals  of  the  land.  In  the  year  of 
its  publication,  Kichard  Baxter,  then  a  youth,  resided  at  White 
hall  with  Sir  Henry  Newport,  Master  of  the  Eevels,  having  been 
persuaded  to  try  his  fortune  at  Court ;  but  being  entertained  there 
with  a  play  instead  of  a  sermon  on  the  Lord's-day  afternoons, 
and  hearing  little  preaching  except  what  was  against  the  Puritans, 
he  found  a  month's  experience  of  Court  life  sufficient,  and  retired 
with  disgust.3  His  account  is  confirmed  by  the  Strafford  Letters, 

1  Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  iii  pp.  174, 175. 

>  Ibid.  3   tome's  Life  of  Baxter,  p.  14. 


ENGLAND.  131 

where  we  have  the  following  picture  :  "  The  French  and  Spanish 
Ambassadors  were  both  at  the  King's  mask,  but  not  received  as 
ambassadors.  The  French  sat  among  the  ladies,  the  Spanish  in 
a  box.  It  was  performed  on  a  Sunday  night.  My  Lord  Treasurer 
Juxon  was  there  by  command."  l 

When  the  Court  and  the  clergy  thus  took  the  lead  in  breaking 
down  the  barriers  of  religion,  what  was  to  be  expected  but  a 
general  flood  of  impiety  1  "I  cannot  forget,"  says  Baxter,  "  that 
in  my  youth,  in  those  late  times,  when  we  lost  the  labours  of 
some  of  our  conformable,  godly  teachers  for  not  reading  the  Book 
of  /Sports  and  dancing  on  the  Lord's  day,  one  of  my  father's  own 
tenants  was  the  town-piper,  hired  by  the  year  (for  many  years 
together),  and  the  place  of  the  dancing  assembly  was  not  an  hun 
dred  yards  from  our  door.  We  could  not,  on  the  Lord's  day, 
either  read  a  chapter,  or  pray,  or  sing  a  psalm,  or  catechize,  or 
instruct  a  servant,  but  with  the  noise  of  the  pipe  and  tabor,  and 
the  shoutings  in  the  street  continually  in  our  ears.  Even  among 
a  tractable  people  we  were  the  common  scorn  of  all  the  rabble  in 
the  streets  ;  and  called  Puritans,  precisians,  and  hypocrites,  because 
we  rather  chose  to  read  the  Scriptures,  than  to  do  as  they  did, 
though  there  was  no  savour  of  nonconformity  in  our  family.  And 
when  the  people,  by  the  book,  were  allowed  to  play  and  dance 
out  of  public  service  time,  they  could  so  hardly  break  off  their 
sports,  that  many  a  time  the  reader  was  fain  to  stay  till  the  piper 
and  players  would  give  over.  Sometimes  the  morris-dancers  would 
come  into  the  church  in  all  their  linen,  and  scarfs,  and  antic- 
dresses,  with  morris- bells  jingling  at  their  legs  ;  and,  as  soon  as 
common-prayer  was  read,  did  haste  out  presently  to  their  play 
again."  2 

Such  was  the  baneful  influence  of  a  book,  which,  though  re 
plete  with  neither  argument  nor  eloquence,  yet,  as  the  word  of  a 
king,  had  power.  Scarcely,  however,  had  "  this  practical  part  of 
the  Sabbatarian  difference"  commenced,  when  the  Government 
saw  that  authority  must,  if  possible,  be  sustained  by  means  of 
the  press.  Learned  ecclesiastics  were  accordingly  employed  to 
write  in  vindication  of  the  measures  of  the  Court.  And  they 
were  not  slow  to  do  the  bid  ling  of  their  superiors  ;  hence  there 

i  Vol.  tt.  p.  14S  2  Practical  Works  (ISSS),  vol.  lii.  p.  90k 


132  SKETCHES  OP  SABBATIC  CONTKOYERSIES. 

rose  up  together,  or  in  rapid  succession,  a  class  of  authors  whose 
writings  perverted  the  doctrine,  and  gave  a  new  tone  to  the 
literature  of  the  Sabbath. 

Among  the  foremost  was  the  noted  Dr.  Peter  Heylyn,  who 
issued,  in  1634,  his  already-mentioned  translation  of  Prideaux's 
Oration,  and,  in  1635,  his  History  of  the  Sabbath,  which,  though 
extending  to  450  quarto  pages,  "  was  written,  printed,  and  pre 
sented  to  the  King  in  less  than  four  months." l  In  this  work  the 
author  traces  the  alleged  Notices  of  the  Institution  from  the  2d 
chapter  of  Genesis  down  to  the  Declaration  of  Charles  L,  gather 
ing  in  his  course  proofs,  as  he  presumes,  that  the  Sabbath  was 
unknown  in  the  world  till  it  was  given  to  the  Jews,  who  neither 
observed  nor  regarded  it  as  a  moral  precept  •  that,  at  the  destruc 
tion  of  their  temple  by  the  Romans,  it  was  abrogated  with  other 
ceremonies  ;  and  was,  by  the  few  Gentiles  who  took  notice  of  it, 
known  only  to  be  derided  ;  while  the  Lord's  day  had  no  other 
authority  than  the  voluntary  consecration  of  it  to  religious  uses 
by  the  Church,  rose  gradually,  by  means  of  edicts,  canons,  and 
decretals,  to  the  esteem  it  enjoys,  and  may,  when  not  employed 
in  public  worship,  be  spent  in  all  such  business  and  pleasures  as 
are  lawful  in  themselves,  and  not  forbidden  by  the  existing  civil 
power. 

In  his  Life  of  Archbishop  Laud,  Heylyn  informs  us  that,  while 
"  the  practical  and  historical  part "  was  assigned  to  "  Heylyn  of 
Westminster,  who  had  gained  some  reputation  for  his  studies  in 
the  ancient  writers,"  "  the  argumentative  and  scholastical  was 
referred  to  the  right  learned  Dr.  White,  then  Bishop  of  Ely,  who 
had  given  good  proof  of  his  ability  in  polemical  matters  in  several 
books  and  disputations  against  the  Papists."2  Dr.  White  him 
self,  who  published  his  Treatise  of  the  Sabbath  in  1635,  states  in 
the  Dedication  to  Laud,  that  he  had,  by  his  Grace's  direction, 
obediently  performed  in  the  publication  what  was  commanded  by 
his  sacred  Majesty,  whose  will  it  was  that  a  treatise  should  be 
set  forth  in  counteraction  of  those  principles,  commonly  preached, 
printed,  and  believed  throughout  the  kingdom,  on  which  Bra- 
bourne  had  grounded  his  arguments.  It  showed  "  method  in 
their  madness  "  that  the  authors  and  defenders  of  the  Book  of 

i  Yemen's  Life  of  Heylyn,  p.  88.  a  Page  29(5. 


ENGLAND.  133 

Sports  sought  to  cover  their  opposition  to  those  generally  received 
"  principles,"  in  other  words,  to  the  doctrine  of  Bownd  and  of  the 
Homilies,  under  the  pretext  that  such  doctrine  led,  by  necessary 
consequence,  to  opinions  so  extreme  and  unpopular  as  those  of  the 
Sabbatarian  just  named.  While  White  has  much  in  common  with 
Heylyii,  it  is  only  just  to  him  to  say  that  he  admits  an  obligation 
of  "  equity  "  on  Christians  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  "  argues 
the  apostolical  institution  of  the  Lord's  day  from  its  immediate 
universal  adoption,"  and  states,  that  to  devote  it  wholly  to  reli 
gion  is  "  a  work  of  grace  and  godliness  pleasing  and  acceptable  to 
God."1  His  Treatise  has  been  called  the  most  learned  produc 
tion  of  the  time  on  its  subject,  yet,  both  in  the  work  itself,  and 
in  a  defence  of  it  against  an  able  anonymous  reply,  he  deals  so 
largely  in  undignified  abuse  as  not  only  to  evince  very  slender 
attainments  in  self-government,  but  to  betray  the  fact  and  the 
consciousness  that  his  cause  was  as  weak  in  the  moral,  as  it  was 
strong  in  the  physical  force,  by  which  it  was  supported.  "  I 
turned  over  the  leaves  both  of  the  Bishop's  and  D.  Heylyn's 
book,"  says  "the  pious  and  profoundly  learned"  Joseph  Mede, 
writing  to  Dr.  Twisse  in  April  1636,  "when  they  came  newly 
out,  that  I  might  see  their  principles  and  the  way  they  went  : 
further  I  am  not  acquainted  with  them  ;  because  I  took  no 
pleasure  neither  in  their  conclusions  nor  in  their  grounds,  which, 
if  they  be  urged,  would  overthrow  a  great  deal  more  than  they 
are  aware  of."2 

Drs.  Heylyn  and  Francis  White  were  followed  by  Dr.  Pock- 
lington,  whose  Sunday  no  Sabbath  :  a  Sermon,  after  passing,  what 
was  to  him,  the  easy  ordeal  of  the  licenser,  in  the  earlier  part  of 
1635,  was  preached  by  the  author  in  August  of  the  same  year, 
and,  "according  to  the  copy  before  us,  had  reached  its  second 
edition  from  the  press  by  1636.  In  1640,  the  Long  Parliament 
committed  a  blunder,  to  say  the  least,  when  it  condemned  the 
Sermon,  with  the  Altar e  Christianum,  another  product  of  the 
doctor's  pen,  to  be  publicly  burnt  in  the  city  of  London  and  the 
two  Universities,  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman — a  fate 
inappropriate  to  performances  which  otherwise  would  have  found 
their  way  to  their  native  obscurity. 

pp.  2--.:,,  256.  a  Works  (1672),  p.  889, 


134  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

It  does  not  appear  whether  A  Sovereign  Antidote  against  Sab- 
batharian  Errors,  "  by  a  reverend,  religious,  and  judicious  divine," 
printed  in  1636,  came  out  under  the  sanction  of  its  author,  Dr. 
Sanderson,  who  had  written  and  sent  it  in  a  manuscript  letter  to 
a  Mr.  Th.  Sa.  of  Nottinghamshire,  in  the  year  1634.  It  has 
been  published  at  different  times  with  the  name  of  the  writer  in 
his  Cases  of  Conscience.  From  a  comparison  of  this  tract  with 
previous  and  subsequent  works  of  Dr.  Sanderson,  it  should  seem 
that  his  views  of  the  subject  fluctuated  ;  and  it  has  been  sup 
posed  that,  in  his  case  as  in  that  of  Hammond,  the  influence  of 
the  primate  prevailed  over  the  judgment  of  the  individual.1  The 
following  words  of  the  tract  in  question  give  countenance  to  the 
latter  view,  and,  at  all  events,  show  a  truckling  to  the  powers 
that  were,  unworthy  of  the  man  who  wrote  them  :  "In  this 
matter,  touching  Recreations  to  be  used  on  the  Lord's  day,  much 
need  not  be  said,  there  being  little  difficulty  in  it,  and  his 
Majesty's  last  Declaration  in  that  behalf  having  put  it  past  Dis 
putation.  Those  Recreations  are  the  meetest  to  be  used,  which 
give  the  best  refreshing  to  the  body,  and  leave  the  least  impres 
sion  in  the  mind  ;  in  which  respect,  shooting,  leaping,  pitching 
the  bar,  stool-ball,  etc.,  are  rather  to  be  chosen  than  dicing,  card 
ing,  etc."2 

Two  other  works  of  similar  views  belong  to  the  same  year. 
One  of  them  is  A  Treatise  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day,  by 
David  Primerose,  minister  of  the  Protestant  Church  at  Rouen. 
It  was  "  Englished  out  of  his  French  MS."  by  his  father,  Dr. 
Gilbert  Primerose,  a  Scotsman  who  had  been  for  some  time  a 
Minister  at  Bordeaux,  but  now  presided  over  a  French  congrega 
tion  in  London.  If  among  works  of  the  class  and  time  the  Trea 
tise  of  Bishop  White  excelled  in  learning,  and  Dr.  Heylyn'a 
History  was  a  prodigy  of  energetic  application,  the  publication  of 
Mr.  Primerose  must  be  regarded  as  bearing  away  the  palm  for  a 
thorough-going  heartless  determination  to  explain  away  every 
thing  that  makes  for  a  holy  and  beneficent  Sabbath.  The  other 
work  is  A  Discourse  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day,  by  Chris 
topher  Dow,  B.D.,  who  was  willing,  he  says,  it  should  see  the 

1  James's  Four  Sermons  on  the  Sacraments  and  Sabbath,  p.  259. 

2  Eight  Cases  of  Conscience  (1674),  pp.  16,  17. 


ENGLAND.  i  55 

light,  "  considering  that  the  brevity  of  it  might  make  it  passe  and 
find  favour  with  some,  and  that  being  of  a  mean  straine,  it  might 
better  meete  with  common  capacities  than  larger  and  more  elabo 
rate  tractates."  The  writer,  we  trust,  did  not  know,  though  he 
ought  to  have  known,  that  this  was  the  language  of  self-gratula- 
tion  on  the  honour  of  contributing  in  any  measure  to  the  over 
throw  of  one  of  the  best  bulwarks  of  Christianity  and  his  country. 
When  we  add  the  Seven  Questions  of  tJie  Sabbath,  by  Gilbert 
Ironside,  B.D.,  and  Dr.  Heylyn's  Brief  and  Moderate  Answer  to 
Mr.  Henry  Burton,  both  printed  in  1637,  we  nearly  complete,  so 
far  as  we  know,  the  list  of  original  publications  in  defence  of  the 
Declaration  of  Sports,  that  appeared  from  1632  to  1638,  or,  we 
might  say,  to  1650,  twelve  years  of  that  period  being  a  blank  in 
anti- Sabbatic  literature. 

It  takes  not  a  little  from  the  credit  of  these  champions  of 
Sabbath  amusements,  that  men  of  other  views,  many  of  whom 
were  both  able  and  willing,  had  no  liberty,  either  from  pulpit  or 
press,  to  expound  their  opinions.  For  recommending  from  the 
pulpit,  in  opposition  to  the  Treatise  of  Bishop  White,  the  sacred 
observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  Mr.  George  Walker,  a  London  rec 
tor,  was  convened  before  the  Primate,  and  received  canonical  ad 
monition.1  And  his  having  spoken  against  the  putting  down  of 
afternoon  sermons  on  the  Lord's  day  was  one  of  a  few,  not  more 
heinous,  acts  for  which  Mr.  Henry  Burton  was  condemned  to  im 
prisonment  and  horrible  mutilation  of  his  person.  Apart  from  its 
danger,  the  publication  of  writings  favourable  to  the  Sabbath  was 
impeded  by  difficulties  almost  insurmountable.  Some  two  or  three 
tracts  by  Prynne,  one  by  Burton,  and  a  new  edition  of  Sprint's 
Propositions  formed,  accordingly,  the  amount  of  force  which  v/as 
brought  to  bear  against  the  attacks  of  the  numerous  publications, 
great  and  small,  on  the  other  side.  The  authors  of  these  pub 
lications  were,  in  some  instances,  ungenerous  enough  to  twit 
an  unlicensed  opponent,  who  some  way  or  other  was  enabled  to 
give  his  sentiments  to  the  world  through  the  press,  with  the 
contraband  character  of  his  literary  wares  ;  an  argument  feeble 
for  every  other  purpose  than  to  quicken  the  vigilance  of  the  autho 
rities. 

1  Athm.  Oxrnn.  vol.  i.  p.  4&C 


136  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

It  was  another  material  deduction  from  the  glory  of  the  anti- 
Sabbatic  writers  in  question,  and  from  the  weight  of  their  opinions, 
that  they  were  bound  together  and  to  a  common  cause  by  the  spell 
of  one  gifted,  unscrupulous,  and  resolute  spirit.  The  dedications, 
the  courtly  eulogies,  and  in  some  instances  the  avowal  of  royal 
command  or  of  archiepiscopal  authority,  as  their  reason  for  writing, 
pointed  to  Laud  as  the  ruling  star.  But  this  subject  more  fitly 
falls  to  be  treated  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England. 
"  It  will  readily  be  believed,  that  the  opinion  which  was  adopted 
by  the  energetic  mind  of  Laud,  soon  found  other  kindred  spirits  to 
support  it  :  accordingly  at  this  time  there  rose  up  an  host  of  men, 
who  will  ever  be  ranked  among  our  ablest  divines,  and  who  all 
seemed  to  follow  his  course  :  Bishops  White  and  Bramhall,  and 
Jeremy  Taylor,  and  Sanderson,  with  Dr.  Hammond,  and,  though 
last,  perhaps  not  least,  Dr.  Barrow."  The  objection,  he  observes, 
is  not  to  the  statement  of  duty  as  made  by  these  great  theologians, 
but  to  their  rejection  of  the  ground  on  which  it  truly  rests,  all  of 
them  regarding  the  Fourth  Commandment  as  a  Jewish  and  tem 
porary  ordinance,  and  all,  except  White,  denying  the  apostolical 
institution  of  the  Lord's  day.  After  attributing  "  this  agreement 
iii  deviation  from  the  generally-received  opinion  "  in  some  measure 
to  "  the  extravagance  of  the  Sabbatarians,"  he  thus  proceeds  : 
"  Something,  too,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  influence  of  friendship, 
and  the  mutual  interchange  of  thought,  if  we  consider  how  they 
were  all  connected  together.  Bramhall  went  into  Ireland  with  his 
patron,  Lord  Strafford ;  White  was  the  friend,  Taylor  the  chap 
lain  of  Archbishop  Laud,  by  whom  also  Sanderson  was  recom 
mended  to  the  royal  favour  ;  Hammond  was  the  friend  of  Sander 
son  ;  and  though  Barrow  was  of  a  somewhat  later  day,  in  his 
early  life  distress  occasioned  by  the  civil  war  made  him  indebted 
for  his  education  to  the  generosity  of  Dr.  Hammond."1  This 
line  of  remark  may  be  extended  to  other  less  distinguished  mem 
bers  of  the  fraternity.  Dr.  Heylyn,  it  is  well  known,  was  the 
protege  of  the  Primate.  Drs.  Pocklington  and  G.  Primerose  were 
king's  chaplains.  Christopher  Dow,  says  even  Wood,  "  was  much 
favoured  by  Dr.  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (whoso  creature 
and  champion  he  was),  and  by  him  promoted  to  several  ecclesi- 

1  James's  Pmr  Sermons,  pp.  2!">2 -257. 


ENGLAND.  137 

astical  benefices."1  Primerose,  the  son,  had  been  the  admiring  and 
admired  pupil  of  Prideaux.  Ironside,  indeed,  Wood  informs  us, 
was  "  never  chaplain  to  any  spiritual  or  temporal  lord,  or  to  any 
king  or  prince."  His  views,  he  himself  says,  were  formed  and 
declared  many  years  before  the  King's  declaration  was  published 
and  his  preferments  to  a  prebend  and  bishopric,  we  may  add,  came 
after  services  rendered  by  him  to  the  Government.  But  he,  too,  was 
a  humble,  if  not  a  "  hungry  expectant  of  office,"  when,  in  dedicating 
the  "  Seven  Questions  "  to  Laud,  he  besought  his  Grace  "  to  receive 
both  the  work  and  the  author  into  his  patronage  and  protection," 
and  added  a  prayer  for  "  our  Aaron,  as  if  the  Jewish  "  high 
priest "  and  "  saint  "  were  a  type  in  anything,  except  in  the  worship 
of  the  golden  calf,  of  a  person  who,  so  far  from  being  "  a  lover  of 
good  men,"  was  the  leader  of  a  class  whose  deeds  Sir  B.  Rudyerd 
thus  described  and  denounced  in  Parliament  : — "  We  have  seene 
Ministers,  their  Wives,  Children,  and  Families  undone,  against 
law,  against  conscience,  against  all  bowels  of  compassion,  about 
not  dancing  upon  Sundayes.  What  doe  these  sort  of  men  think 
will  become  of  themselves,  when  the  Master  of  the  house  shall 
come,  and  frnde  them  thus  beating  their  fellow-servants  ?"  2 

The  Primate  and  his  friends  had  now,  as  far  as  they  could,  re 
duced  the  Sabbatic  institution  to  a  nullity.  And  this  was  only 
one  of  many  wrongs,  which  drove  thousands  of  families  to  foreign 
shores,  till,  by  an  Act  of  the  King  and  Council,  even  this  relief 
from  oppression  was  precluded  to  its  victims.  But  the  year  1640 
came,  and  along  with  it  the  exhaustion  of  the  country's  patience 
under  protracted  misrule.  The  Parliament  assembled  in  Novem 
ber,  and  declaring  its  sittings  permanent,  proceeded  vigorously  to 
its  Herculean  task  of  reformation.  To  the  Sabbath  it  rendered 
some  important  services  ;  bringing  to  light  the  melancholy  extent 
to  which  clerical  ungodliness  and  profligacy,  Trentine  errors,  and 
the  want  of  religious  teaching,  prevailed  in  the  Church,  whereby 
were  demonstrated  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  Laud's  Anti-Sab 
batic  policy  ;  passing  several  Acts  for  enforcing  existing  Statutes 
relative  to  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  the  members  con 
sistently  exemplifying  the  law  in  their  own  practice  ;  securing  for 

1  Athen.  Oxon.  vol.  i.  p.  840. 

8  Speeches  and  Passages  of  this  Great  and  Happy  Parliament,  pp.  103,  104. 


138  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

the  friends  of  the  day  freedom  to  proclaim  their  views  regarding  it 
from  pulpit  and  press  without  fear  of  the  Star  Chamber,  the  High 
Commission,  imprisonment,  confiscation  of  goods,  or  bodily  mutila 
tion  ;  and  calling  together  the  Westminster  Assembly,  thus  elicit 
ing  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  important  testimonies  ever  borne 
to  the  Divine  authority,  perpetual  obligation,  and  sacred  character 
of  the  Weekly  Rest. 

Of  their  new-born  liberty  several  learned  and  excellent  men 
speedily  availed  themselves  to  pour  out  through  the  press  their 
Sabbatic  stores.  No  less  than  eleven  treatises,  for  the  most  part 
of  considerable  extent,  and  of  no  ordinary  ability,  appeared  on  be 
half  of  the  institution  in  the  course  of  1641.  Two  of  them — 
a  reprint  of  the  Pattern  of  Catechistical  Doctrine,  by  Bishop 
Andrewes,  and  the  Theses  De  Sabbato,  by  Bishop  Lake — were 
posthumous.  The  authors  of  the  other  works  were  Hamon,  son 
of  Sir  Hamon  L' Estrange  ;  Dr.  George  Hakewill,  Rector  of  Exeter 
College,  Oxford  ;  Richard  Bernard,  the  laborious  Rector  of  Bat- 
combe  ;  Dr.  William  Gouge,  the  pious  and  accomplished  minister 
of  Blackfriars,  London ;  John  Ley,  rector  successively  of  various 
parishes,  who,  in  Sunday  a  Sabbath,  one  of  two  treatises  published 
by  him,  was  assisted  by  the  MSS.  and  advice  of  Archbishop  Ussher ; 
George  Abbot,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament,  as  well  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  ;  George  Walker,  Rector  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  already  referred  to  ;  and  Dr.  William  Twisse,  minister 
of  Newbury,  a  native  of  its  neighbourhood,  and  Prolocutor  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly.  The  Morality  of  the  Fourth  Command 
ment  is  perhaps  the  ablest  treatise  of  the  year  1641,  and  one 
which  deserves  ever  to  rank  high  amongst  works  of  its  class.  A 
profound  thinker,  and  an  accomplished  debater,  Dr.  Twisse  was 
no  less  distinguished  as  a  Christian,  who,  there  is  good  reason  to 
trust,  now  enjoys  the  begun  realization  of  his  hope  as  thus  ex 
pressed  when  he  was  about  to  die  :  "  Now  I  shall  have  leisure  to 
pursue  my  studies  to  all  eternity."  The  value  of  his  work,  in 
trinsically  great,  is  enhanced  by  the  already-mentioned  sententious 
and  pithy  performance  of  Bishop  Lake,  which  is  appended  to  it. 
This  learned  prelate  concludes  the  Times  by  saying,  that  while 
cherishing  charity  for  those  who  differed  from  him,  and  desiring 
for  all  the  sobriety  of  judgment  commended  in  Rom.  xiv.,  yet 


ENGLAND.  139 

"  seeing  to  fetch  the  authority  of  the  Lord's  day  from  God,  and  to 
keepe  it  with  all  reasonable  strictnesse,  maketh  most  for  piety — 
in  a  doubtfull  case  I  incline  thither." 

While  the  admirable  testimony  of  the  Westminster  Assembly 
on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbath,  to  be  presented  in  another  part  of 
this  volume,  had  not  yet  appeared,  certain  writers  conceived  that 
in  the  works  which  had  been  recently  published,  numerous  and 
excellent  though  these  were,  justice  had  not  been  done  to  an  in 
stitution  so  outrageously  wronged  by  the  measures  of  Charles  I. 
and  Laud.1  In  addition  to  the  ingenious  treatise  of  Irenseus 
Philalethes  in  1643,  and  a  work  by  John  Lawson  in  the  follow 
ing  year,  there  appeared  one  of  the  largest,  ablest,  and  most  satis 
factory  discussions  which  the  subject  ever  received,  belonging,  the 
first  volume  to  1645,  the  second  to  1652.  The  authors,  Daniel 
Cawdrey  and  Herbert  Palmer,  were  distinguished  members  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly,  by  whose  order,  it  has  been  said,  the 
Sabbatum  .Redivivum  was  written.  Palmer  having  in  1 647,  "gone 
to  celebrate  the  Sabbatism  above,"  it  was  left  to  the  other  to  "put 
the  last  hand  and  file"  to  the  work.  It  is  stated  in  the  Preface 
that  they  had  prepared  their  MS.  when  "  nothing  had  appeared 
for,  but  all  against,  the  Sabbath,"  and  that  they  were  dissatisfied 
with  former  writers  for  either  regarding  the  Saturday  Sabbath  as 
literally  enjoined  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  thereby  "losing 
their  cause  and  the  commandment  too,"  or  not  sufficiently  confut 
ing  the  opinion.  Palmer  and  Cawdrey  were  followed  by  John 
White,  "  the  Patriarch  of  Dorchester,"  in  a  valuable  dissertation 
of  1647  ;  by  Hezekiah  Woodward  in  1648  ;  and  by  Thomas 
Shepard  (1649),  whose  excellent  volume  will  fall  to  be  again 
noticed. 

The  opponents  of  the  Sabbatic  doctrine  of  the  Puritans  and  of 
the  Homilies  had  now  for  thirteen  years  been  mute  on  the  subject, 

1  From  the  following  views  expressed  by  Charles,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  Anti- 
Sabbatic  measures  of  Laud  formed  no  exception  to  the  matters  in  which,  according  to 
Echard  and  Clarendon,  the  prelate  had  the  hearty  concurrence  of  the  king :  "  I  con 
ceive  the  celebration  of  this  feast  [Easter]  was  instituted  by  the  same  authority  which 
changed  the  Jewish  Sabbath  into  the  Lord's  day  or  Sunday.  For  it  wiU  not  be  found  in 
Scripture  where  Saturday  is  discharged  to  be  kept,  or  turned  into  Sunday ;  wherefore 
it  must  be  the  Church's  authority  that  changed  the  one  and  instituted  the  other."— 
Morer's  Dialogues,  p.  58. 


140  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

constrained  to  silence  for  the  greater  part  of  that  time,  probably, 
by  a  fear  of  the  treatment  which  befel  Pocklington  and  Bray.1 
But  at  length  encouraged  by  the  state  of  feeling  and  of  parties 
that  followed  the  death  of  Charles  I.,  an  anonymous  writer,  who 
afterwards  gave  his  name  as  Edward  Fisher,  Esq.,  craved  to  be 
heard,  affirming  and  proving  that  Christmas  day  and  the  Lord's 
day  are  institutions  of  equal  weight  and  authority,  and  that  it  is 
no  less  sinful,  to  work  on  the  former  than  on  the  latter  day.  The 
performance  gave  rise  to  a  full  and  learned  vindication  of  the  Sab 
bath  by  Giles  Collier,  Vicar  of  Blockley,  against  the  attempt  to 
degrade  it  to  the  level  of  a  human  appointment ;  and  to  a  publi 
cation  by  John,  afterwards  Dr.  Collinges  of  Norwich,  exposing  the 
error  of  raising  Christmas  to  the  dignity  of  a  divine  institution. 
After  a  remarkable  tract  by  Thomas  Chafie,  Vicar  of  Nutshelling, 
reprinted  in  1692  with  a  recommendation  by  Bates  and  Howe  ; 
an  interesting  practical  work  by  Philip  Goodwin,  "  Pastour  of  the 
publike  congregation,  Watford ;"  a  learned  Latin  dissertation  by 
Dr.  Henry  Wilkinson,  and  publications  by  Prynne  and  Pynchon, 
all  in  favour  of  the  Sabbath,  there  appeared  in  1657,  Tlie  Judg 
ment  of  Ussher  on  that  and  other  points,  in  which  we  are  favoured 
with  a  long  and  erudite  letter  of  the  Archbishop  to  Dr.  Twisse, 
upholding  the  doctrine  of  the  Irish  Articles.  To  this  work,  edited 
by  Dr.  Nicholas  Bernard,  Dr.  Heylyn  replied  in  his  Petrus  JKe- 
spondet,  displaying  in  the  renewed  effort  to  destroy  the  institution 
all  his  old  zeal,  and  more  than  his  former  subtlety.  Regardless 
of  the  Doctor's  sophisms,  Pearson,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Chester, 
proclaimed,  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Creed  (1659),  the  common- 
sense  view  of  the  Sabbath,  which,  when  the  dust  raised  by  what 
was  really  a  faction  in  the  Church  had  been  well-nigh  blown  away, 
was  seen  to  be  the  general  creed  of  Churchmen,  as  it  was  of  Non 
conformists,  and  as  it  has  continued  to  be  the  faith  of  both  classes 
to  this  day. 

The  prolonged  discussion  of  the  subject  by  the  friends  of  the 
institution  has  been,  in  part,  owing  to  the  necessity  for  checking 

1  In  1641  "the  Lower  House  ordained  the  Mayor  to  see  them  both  [Pocklington's 
Altare  Christianum  and  Sunday  no  Sablath]  burst  at  Cheapside,  and  Bray,  the  licenser, 
to  read  out  of  a  paper  his  condemnation  of  a  number  of  errors  which  ha  had  licensed 
He  did  so  with  a  great  deal  of  feigned  repentance,  for  the  Lower  House  ttua  year  make* 
many  hypocrites. "— --Baillie's  Letters  (1775),  vol.  i.  p.  290. 


ENGLAND.  141 

desecrations  of  the  Sabbath  which  have  more  or  less  prevailed. 
The  evils  of  the  Book  of  Sports,  and  of  the  writings  by  which  it 
was  defended,  were  not  to  be  remedied  in  a  day.  There  mixed, 
moreover,  in  the  ranks  of  the  truly  good  and  earnest  men  of  the 
Commonwealth  not  a  few  who  were  mere  followers  of  the  multi 
tude,  and  whose  overdone  profession  of  religion  excited  only  dis 
gust  and  contempt  in  one  class  and  pity  in  another.  When  such 
persons  returned  at  the  Restoration  to  their  natural  element  of 
licentiousness,  they  swelled  the  tide  of  profligacy,  which,  setting  in 
from  the  Court,  overflowed  the  land.  The  immorality  and  pro- 
faneness  of  that  period  are  notorious,  and  we  are  let  into  the  know 
ledge  of  their  leading  cause  by  Evelyn's  sketch  of  a  Sunday  scene, 
which  he  witnessed  at  Whitehall,  and  where  figured  the  king,  his 
concubines,  twenty  great  courtiers,  with  other  dissolute  pessons,  at 
cards  round  a  large  table,  and  "  a  French  boy  singing  love  songs 
in  that  glorious  gallery."1  Dr.  Heylyn  had  said  that  danger  to 
England  was  to  be  apprehended  from  the  superstitious  observance, 
not  from  the  profane  neglect  of  the  Lord's  d&y.  We  know  not  what 
his  feelings  were  in  the  two  years  that  he  survived  the  Restoration, 
when  he  had  it  in  his  power,  by  a  comparison  of  the  state  of  the 
country  with  what  it  had  lately  been,  to  estimate  his  gifts  as  a  seer, 
and  the  moral  value  of  his  views  and  labours  as  an  anti-Sabbatist. 
Referring,  in  1 7 60, to  Heylyn's  prophecy,  Jephson  says  :  "We  hava 
lived  to  see  the  contrary,  and  that  the  Lord's  day  is  overrun  by  pro- 
faneness  infinitely  more  than  ever  it  was  overflown  by  superstition."2 
Bishop  Horsley  preached  his  eloquent  sermons  on  the  subject  to 
wards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and  mentions  "  the  roads 
crowded  on  the  Sunday,  as  on  any  other  day,  with  travellers  of 
every  sort,"  and  "  the  mingled  racket  of  worldly  business  and  plea 
sure  going  on  with  little  abatement"  in  London,  as  "  scandals 
calling  loudly  for  redress."  The  Sunday  press,  Sunday  excursions 
by  steamers,  and  Sunday  trading,  especially  in  intoxicating  liquors, 
were  the  metropolitan  enormities  which  disgraced  the  earlier  part 
of  the  present  century.  And  in  our  own  day,  when  the  institu 
tion  has  more  than  at  any  former  time  been  assailed  by  the  press, 
when  railway  proprietors  have  multiplied  travelling,  and  its  atten- 

i  Memoirs  (1827),  vol.  iii.  p.  137. 

>  Discourse  on  the  Religious  Observation  of  the  Lorffs  Day,  Preface,  p.  viii. 


142  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

dant  dissipation,  on  the  Sabbath,  a  thousand  fold,  and  when  a 
National  League  strains  every  nerve  to  have  a  continental  Sunday 
legalized  in  England,  the  tendencies  of  such  measures  receive 
mournful  illustration  in  the  fact  that  five  millions  of  our  country 
men  habitually  forsake  the  assembling  of  themselves  together  on 
the  day  and  in  the  house  of  God. 

But  controversy  has  been  rendered  necessary  by  the  prevalence 
of  wrong  opinions  of  the  Sabbath,  as  well  as  by  the  practical 
abuses,  in  which  they  have  both  their  origin  and  their  result. 
The  notion  that  every  day  is  alike,  entertained  with  various  mean 
ing  and  object  by  Saltmarsh  (after  Hetherington  and  others), 
Porter,  Belsham,  and  a  party  who  claim  to  themselves  the  dis 
tinctive  title  of  "  The  Followers  of  Jesus,"  though  it  has  had  too 
few  and  inconsiderable  supporters  to  call  forth  any  special  refuta 
tion,  has  not  altogether  passed  unnoticed  by  defenders  of  a  periodi 
cal  holy  day.  More  fruitful  of  discussion  have  been  the  views  of  a 
class  of  men  who,  spread  over  a  space  of  more  than  two  centuries, 
have  contended  for  the  perpetuity  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbatli 
against  the  Christian  world.  Traske  and  Brabourne  have  been 
followed  by  Ockford,  Sailer  and  Spittlehouse,  Tillam,  Chamberlain, 
Coppinger,  the  Stennets,  the  Bampfields,  Philanthropes,  Philotheos, 
Carlow,  Elwall,  Cornthwaite,  Wyncup,  Dawson,  Burnside,  Shen- 
ston,  and  W.  H.  Black.  But  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  Sab 
batic  controversy  and  literature  of  England  during  the  last  two 
centuries  has  been  owing  to  the  necessity  for  combating  opinions 
adverse  to  a  weekly  rest  considered  as  in  all  ages  a  divinely  ap 
pointed  and  essentially  identical  ordinance.  Among  the  principal 
writers  who  have  concurred  in  rejecting  the  generally  received  doc 
trine  of  a  Sabbath  expressly  given  and  prescribed  by  God  to  man 
kind  "  from  Adam  to  his  latest  son"  have  been  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Hammond,  Bramhall,  Barrow,  and  Spencer,  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
seventeenth  century  ;  Grascome,  Morer,  Paley,  and  Ogden,  in  the 
eighteenth  ;  Higgins,  Whately,  Bannerman  (author  of  the  Modern 
Sabbath  Examined],  Fearon,  Powell,  Arnold,  Domville,  and  Reichel, 
in  the  nineteenth.  Persons  so  different  from  each  other  in  impor 
tant  respects,  and  even  in  their  views  of  the  institution,  must  be 
understood  as  now  classified  together  simply  on  the  ground  of  their 
common  hostility  to  a  primseval  holy  day,  arid  to  the  obligation  on 


ENGLAND.  143 

Christians  of  the  Fourth  Commandment.  We  would  not  confound 
the  noble  Arnold  with  the  ignoble  Higgins,  of  whom  a  reviewer 
favourable  to  his  doctrine  says,  "  he  is  destitute  of  every  quality 
that  gives  respect  to  a  writer  ;'51  Bramhall,  who  pleads  so  excel 
lently  for  the  express  appointment  of  the  Lord's  day  by  Christ, 
and  Grascome,  who  holds  the  same  views,  with  Whately,  who 
grounds  the  institution  on  the  authority  of  the  Church  ;  or  Taylor 
and  Barrow,  who  affirm,  the  former,  that  "  the  observation  of  the 
Lord's  day  differs  nothing  from  the  observation  of  the  Sabbath  in  the 
matter  of  religion,  but  in  the  manner,"  the  latter,  that  "  Christians 
ought  to  consecrate  as  much  or  more  time  to  religion  and  mercy 
than  the  Jews,"  with  Powell,  who  deems  it  an  unhappy  and  super 
stitious  misconception  to  suppose  that  it  is  sinful  to  do  on  a  Sun 
day  anything  which  it  is  not  sinful  to  do  on  another  day,  and  who, 
by  hailing  "  the  inevitable  rejection  of  the  historical  character  of 
the  Mosaic  narrative  as  a  marked  feature  in  the  theological  and 
spiritual  advance  of  the  present  age,"  announces  a  principle  which 
gqps  to  "  destroy  the  foundations"  alike  of  the  Sabbath  and  of 
revelation.  Nor  would  we  identify  the  views  of  Paley  and  Ogden, 
who  acknowledge  the  Lord's  day  to  be  of  divine  authority,  and 
even  repudiate  certain  practices  thereon  as  unbecoming  the  public 
worship  allotted  to  the  day,  with  those  of  Morer,  who  places  his 
church  and  himself  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  that  the  institu 
tion  is  of  divine  right  ;  of  Spencer,  who  considers  the  whole 
Hebrew  ritual,  in  which  he  includes  the  Sabbath,  as  of  heathen 
origin  ;  of  Fearon,  who  accounts  for  the  Christian  rest  in  the  same 
way ;  of  Bannerman,  who  believes  that  Scripture  requires  an 
every-day  Sabbath,  while  he  wouM  by  no  means  set  aside  the  poli 
tical  enactment  of  a  weekly  holy  day  ;  of  Domville,  who  main 
tains  that  there  is  no  warrant  to  be  found  in  the  Bible  for  believing 
that  we  are  enjoined  by  divine  authority  to  observe  the  Sunday 
either  as  a  Sabbath  or  as  a  stated  day  of  assembling  for  public 
worship  and  religious  instruction  ;  or,  we  may  add,  of  Milton, 
who,  already  known  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Johnson  as  having  in 
his  latter  days  discontinued  the  observance  of  public  and  domestic 
worship,  was  by  his  posthumous  work  of  1825  fully  disclosed  as 
an  Anti-Sabbatist  to  the  extent  even  of  surrendering  every  autho- 

i  Crilim  Biblica,  vol.  iv.  p.  200. 


144  SKETCHES  OP  SABBATIC  CONTROVEKSIES. 

ritative  claim  of  the  Lord's  day,  except  what  it  derives  from  eccle 
siastical  appointment. 

The  result  of  the  persevering  opposition  to  the  true  theory  and 
due  observance  of  the  institution,  has  been,  that  from  1658  to  the 
present  time  there  have  appeared  no  fewer  than  four  hundred  pub 
lications  of  every  description,  pleading  for  the  divine  authority, 
holy  character,  and  devout  observance  of  the  Lord's  day.  In  re 
futation  of  Sabbatarianism,  works  have  been  published  by  Hanson, 
Aspinwall,  Warren,  Ives,  Baxter,  Benn,  Bunyan,  Trosse,  Dr.  Wallis, 
Marlow,  Keach,  Fleming,  Dobel,  Herbert  Jones,  Edmonds,  with 
others  not  expressly  devoted  to  the  subject.  It  was  a  compensa 
tion  for  the  disturbances  and  separations  which  the  propagation 
of  the  views  opposed  by  such  writers  produced  in  churches  and 
society,  that  the  subject  was  in  consequence  more  thoroughly 
studied,  and  noble  defences  of  the  first-day  Sabbath  were  written. 
A  work  of  Tillam,  who  had  collected  some  followers  in  Colchester, 
gave  occasion  to  a  treatise  in  1659  by  Edmund  Warren,  minister 
of  St.  Peter's  in  that  town — a  treatise  under  the  title,  The,  Jewish 
Sabbath  Antiquated — which,  notwithstanding  its  advocacy  of  the 
dogma  of  George  Walker  and  James  Alting  respecting  the  primi 
tive  Sabbath  as  posterior  to  the  fall  of  Adam,  and  as  grounded  on 
the  purposed  redemption  of  Christ,  contains  a  clear  statement,  a 
powerful  defence,  and  a  heart-thrilling  application  of  the  generally 
received  truth.  To  the  stimulus  of  Sabbatarianism  we  owe  the 
Modest  Plea  for  the  Lord's  Day  (1669),  by  Dr.  CoUinges  of  Nor 
wich  ;  and  to  a  statement  of  the  argument  for  the  seventh  day 
rest  by  the  benevolent  Francis  Bampfield,  we  are  indebted  for  the 
excellent  vindication  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  (1672),  by  the 
eminently  devout  and  philanthropic  Mr.  Benn  of  Dorchester. 
Baxter  (1671)  and  Bunyan  (1685)  wrote  their  interesting  defences 
of  the  Lord's  day  for  relieving  the  perplexities  with  which  some 
good  people  in  their  times  were  distressed  in  consequence  of  the 
proselyting  zeal  of  Saturday  Sabbatists.  The  work  of  Keach 
(1700),  published  for  the  same  purpose,  issued  in  the  restoration 
of  his  distracted  church  to  order  and  peace.  And  but  for  the 
lucubrations  of  Thomas  Bampfield,  counsellor-at-law,  we  should 
never  have  been  favoured  with  the  earnest  treatise  by  George 
Trosse  of  Exeter  (1692),  who,  like  John  Bunyan  and  John  Newton, 


ENGLAND.  145 

from  being  a  profligate  became  a  zealous  minister,  or  with  two 
tracts  by  the  celebrated  Wallis  (1692,  1693),  in  which  he  has 
added  to  the  evidence  of  the  versatility  of  his  genius,  and  of  the 
important  service  that  a  mind  cultivated  by  science  can  render  to 
religion. 

Much  more  numerous,  however,  have  been  the  works  which 
have  been  directed  against  more  dangerous  errors  and  against 
practical  evils.  The  first  instalment  was  of  the  latter  class>  con 
sisting  of  publications  by  Nicholas  Billingsley,  Thomas  Gouge,  so 
distinguished  by  his  munificent  charities,  William  Thomas,  "William 
Bagshaw,  and  John  Wells,  all  ministers  of  the  gospel.  The  Prac 
tical  Sabbatarian,  by  Wells  (1668),  is  a  voluminous,  though  far 
from  dry  detail  of  duties,  accompanied  by  a  learned  statement  of 
the  argument.  The  acute  and  excellent  George  Hughes  of  Ply 
mouth  published  his  Aphorisms,  "  because  fresh  enemies  had  with 
old  weapons  new  furbished  assaulted  the  truth,"  and  for  the  pur 
pose  of  showing  "  whether  we  are  beholding  to  God  or  to  the  bare 
courtesy  of  the  Church  for  a  Sabbath."  Of  the  well-known  treatise 
on  the  subject  by  John  Owen  (1671),  we  will  only  say  that,  un 
dertaken  at  the  request  of  some  learned  men  in  the  United  Pro 
vinces,  for  vindicating  the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  against  the 
attacks  of  "  sundry  divines"  in  that  country,  who  maligned  it  as 
the  Figmentum  Anglicanum,  and  designed  also  for  the  revival  of 
the  same  "much  despised"  doctrine  in  England,1  it  is  perhaps  as 
masterly  an  exposition  and  defence  of  the  institution  as  the  world 
has  seen.  In  the  Divine  Appointment  of  tlie  Lord's  Day,  which, 
though  aimed  particularly  against  Sabbatarianism,  controverts  also 
other  errors,  Baxter  discovers  a  mind  and  attainments  of  an  equally 
high  order,  perhaps,  as  those  of  Owen,  both  when  he  so  originally 
establishes  his  thesis  from  the  New  Testament,  and  copes  so  suc 
cessfully  in  the  field  of  history  with  Heylyn.  If  in  the  few  pages, 
where  he  argues  against  the  formal  obligation  on  Christians  of  the 
law  of  Eden  and  Sinai,  he  becomes  weak  as  other  men,  and  ex 
poses  himself  to  defeat,  as  well  as  impairs  the  authority  and  prac 
tical  rule  of  the  institution,  it  is  to  be  remembered  how  cordially, 
and,  we  may  add,  how  misgivingly  as  to  the  correctness  of  that 
opinion,  he  commends  the  labours  of  Abbot  and  others  who  dif- 

i  Letter  from  Owen  to  John  Eliot  (Mather's  Magnolia,  1702),  pp.  178,  17ft, 


146  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES.  ' 

fered  from  him  on  the  point.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Homes,  in  1673, 
held  that  the  Lord's  day  is  a  return  from  the  Jewish  seventh  day 
to  the  Patriarchal  first  day  of  the  week,  and  was  confident  enough 
to  entitle  his  essay,  The  Sabbath-day's  Rest  from  Gontroversie. 
In  the  same  sanguine  spirit  Thomas  Cleandon  intended  by  his 
Serious  and  Brief  Discourse  of  nine  quarto  pages  (1674)  to 
"  decide  and  determine  all  controversies  respecting  the  Sabbath- 
day."  With  the  humbler  view  of  inducing  his  own  children  to 
sanctify  the  day,  Sir  Matthew  Hale  uttered  a  few  words  which 
have  done  more  to  promote  its  observance  than  some  elaborate 
volumes.  Not  to  mention  a  number  of  writers,  whose  compen 
dious  testimonies  on  the -subject  belong  to  another  part  of  this 
volume,  we  add,  as  supporters  of  the  institution  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  Nicholas  Smith,  Waite,  John  Gregory,  John  Smith,  Dr. 
Townson,  Bishop  Hopkins,  and  William  AlleiiL 

The  eighteenth  century  opens  with  the  defective  doctrine  of 
Keach  and  Grascome,1  and  the  errors  of  Morer,  but  the  remedy  is 
at  hand  in  the  sound  views  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  Ollyffe,  New- 
come,  and  Bingham.  Practical  evil  is  encountered  by  the  season 
able  efforts  of  Hammersley,  Howell,  Humphries,  Nelson,  Matthew 
Henry,  and  Bishop  Beveridge.  If  the  learned  Wotton,  in  his 
Miscellaneous  Discourses  of  1718,  and  the  scholarly  Hallet,  try  to 
deprive  us  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  as  a  rule  for  our  observ 
ance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  they  yet  maintain  the  divine 
appointment  of  the  Sabbath  for  all  the  economies  of  religion,  and 
their  deficiencies  as  well  as  mistakes  are  compensated  by  the  ac 
complished  Dr.  Samuel  Wright,  in  his  able  volume  of  1724  and 
1726;  2  by  Robert  Hill,  Rector  of  Stanhow,  in  his  Reply  to  Drs. 
Heylyn  and  Wallis  ;  by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  in  a 
sermon  ;  and  by  Alexander  Jephson,  Rector  of  Craike,  who  pro 
duced  in  1738,  and  republished  in  1760,  an  excellent  treatise, 
enriched,  like  Wright's,  with  quotations  from  eminent  authors. 
Dr.  Watts,  feeling  that  the  abounding  desecration  of  the  Sabbath 
of  which  Jephson  complains,  and  other  evils,  were  preying  on  the 
vitals  of  Nonconformist  churches,  had  asked  them  in  an  earnest 

1  These  writers,  and  Dr.  Wallis,  rejected  tlie  doctrines  of  a  primaeval  and  patriarchal 
Sabbath. 
*  Battely's  Original  Institution  oftJie  Sabbath  (1726)  we  have  not  seen. 


ENGLAND.  147 

appeal  of  1731,  What  do  ye  more  than  others?  and  afterwards 
published  on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbatic  institution,  in  his  Sermons 
and  Holiness  of  Times.  His  admirer,  Dr.  Doddridge,  handles  the 
same  topic  in  his  lectures.  The  learned  Dr.  Kennicott  declares 
decidedly  for  a  perpetual  Sabbath,  and  in  his  dissertations  of  1 7  4  7 
establishes  the  article  on  which  that  doctrine  ultimately  depends — 
the  divine  institution  of  the  weekly  rest  at  the  creation.  Dr. 
Gibbons,  known  by  his  many  writings,  the  zealous  Walker  of 
Truro,  and  the  excellent  Bishop  Gibson,  write  on  the  subject 
wholly  in  a  practical  strain.  Bolton  assails  a  particular  form  of 
Sabbath  desecration,  while  Moses  Browne,  without  the  genius  of 
Herbert,  makes  good  verse  tributary  to  the  cause.  Dr.  "Webster 
sketches  the  history  of  the  institution  with  more  of  the  Puritan 
spirit  than  Grascome,  while  Catcott  and  Parry  defend  its  anti 
quity — all  of  them  in  sermons.  Steffe  in  1757  was  the  first  to 
enlarge  on  the  wisdom  and  policy  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  and 
worship,  though  the  Occasional  Paper  of  1740  may  have  sug 
gested  the  idea.  The  controversial  blends  with  the  practical  in  the 
writings  of  Drs.  Ridgley,  Chandler  and  John  Taylor,  Richard 
Amner,  Job  Orton,  Archbishop  Seeker,  Coetlogon,  Bishop  Pearce, 
Jeylinger  Symons,  Lewelyn,  Bishop  Porteus,  Archdeacon  Pott,  and 
Samuel  Palmer.  The  pamphlets  of  Lowe  and  Dr.  Thomas  Home 
are  practical.  Dr.  Priestley,  in  controversy  with  his  brother  So- 
cinian,  Evanson,  supports  the  orthodox  opinion,  and  even  Chubb 
upholds  the  first  against  the  seventh  day  of  rest.  We,  of  course, 
omit  many  authors  in  this  century  whose  views,  though  favour 
able  to  a  divinely  appointed  and  permanent  Sabbath,  are  only 
briefly  expressed  in  works  on  other  subjects. 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  Lord's  day 
have  been  called  forth  to  an  unparalleled  extent.  One  of  the  most 
effective  assaults  on  the  abounding  desecration  of  the  day  pro 
ceeded  from  a  meeting  of  the.  friends  of  the  London  Christian 
Instruction  Society,  held  in  1829.  To  this  was  owing  the  publi 
cation  of  several  useful  works  by  Sherman,  Clayton,  and  Burder, 
with  a  reprint  of  the  Essays  by  Dr.  Heman  Humphrey  of  America. 
Bishop  Blomfield  printed  in  1830  his  Letter  to  the  inhabitants  of 
London,  which  led  to  important  results.  The  matter  was  taken 
up  in  the  pulpit ;  the  press  was  employed  ;  the  Lord's-day  Society 


148  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

was  formed ;  the  country  was  everywhere  roused.  Parliament 
became  an  arena  of  the  controversy,  and  its  discussions  operated 
beneficially  among  the  upper  ranks  and  in  foreign  lands,  while  the 
evidence  collected  by  its  means,  and  through  the  exertions  of  Sir 
Andrew  Agnew,  has  been  and  will  remain  an  inexhaustible  arsenal 
for  supplying  the  means  of  defence  and  attack  in  the  cause  of  a 
holy  Sabbath. 

The  amount  of  authorship  which  has  been  elicited  on  behalf  of 
the  institution  in  this  century  is  immense.  When  we  have  ad 
vanced  in  it  some  years  we  find  the  path  covered  with  writings, 
"  thick  as  autumnal  leaves  that  strew  the  brooks  in  Vallambrosa." 
Many  of  them,  though  ephemeral,  may  have  done  much  good  in 
their  respective  circles.  A  few  that  appear  to  us  the  more  impor 
tant  may  be  named.  Bishop  Horsley,  as  the  late  Dr.  Wilson  said, 
has  "  three  noble  sermons  on  the  subject,  in  which  he  powerfully 
maintains  the  generally  received  doctrine,"  though,  as  the  Doctor 
justly  added,  "  he  errs  in  considering  the  Sabbath  more  of  a  posi 
tive  than  moral  character."  Dean  Milner  presents  both  argument 
and  practice  with  energetic  brevity.  The  Christian  Sabbath  of 
Holden,  notwithstanding  some  prolix  digressions,  is  one  of  the 
best  modern  discussions  of  the  subject.  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson's 
volume  is  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  Holden.  Of  the  treatise 
of  Thorn,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  recommended  by  men 
of  note,  including  John  Foster  and  Eobert  Hall,  and  that  it 
had  in  1830  reached  its  seventh  edition.  More  or  less  complete 
publications — some  of  them  bearing  the  impress  of  the  well- 
known  genius  and  scholarship  of  their  authors — have  been  fur 
nished  by  Gurney,  Conder,  Treffry,  Charlotte  Elizabeth,  Drs. 
Croly  and  Richard  W.  Hamilton,  the  Woolwich  Lecturers,  John- 
stone,  Ball,  and  Hill,  author  of  the  prize  essay,  The  Sabbath 
made  for  Man.  Some  have  appeared  to  advantage  in  conflict 
with  opponents  of  the  common  doctrine,  as  Hey  of  Leeds,  in 
replying  to  Dr.  Paley ;  Atcheson,  to  Mons.  Beausobre ;  James  of 
Cobham,  to  Dr.  Heylyn ;  Cameron,  Foster  (Collon),  Barter,  and 
particularly  Professor  Samuel  Lee  and  Archdeacon  Stopford,  to 
Archbishop  Whately  ;  Brooke,  to  Burnside  and  Bannerman ; 
Bouchier,  to  H.  Mayhew ;  a  writer  in  the  London  Quarterly 
Review,  to  Powell ;  M'Guire,  to  Langley  ;  and  O'Neil,  with  others. 


UNITED  STATES.  140 

to  Reichel.  Some  have  happily  illustrated  particular  departments 
of  the  question,  as  Jordan,  who  has  thrown  light  on  septenary 
institutions  in  heathendom,  and  Baylee,  who  has  usefully  laboured 
in  the  fields  of  history  and  statistics.  Others  have  effectually 
exposed  certain  errors  and  abuses,  as  a  Layman,  who  ably  assails 
the  Sunday  newspaper ;  Kingsmill,  who  impressively  warns  his 
countrymen  against  the  attempts  of  Anti-Sabbatic  writers,  Leagues, 
and  shareholders  in  railways  and  the  Crystal  Palace,  to  bring 
them  under  his  charge  as  chaplain  of  a  prison  ;  Arthur,  who 
exhibits  with  graphic  power  the  evils  of  a  French  Sunday  ;  Napier, 
who  in  Parliament  eloquently  deprecated  the  opening  of  the 
British  Museum  on  the  Lord's  day ;  Baptist  Noel,  who  applied 
his  earnest  spirit  to  the  dispersing  of  Sunday  music  bands  ;  and 
Henry  Rogers,  who  exerted  his  great  talents,  that  might  have 
found  still  more  fitting  exercise  on  the  whole  question,  to  crush 
the  fancy  that  access  to  places  of  public  amusement  on  the  Sabbath 
would  be  in  any  one  shape  a  boon  to  our  people. 

The  enemies  of  the  divine  and  salutary  law  of  a  weekly  holy 
rest,  have,  doubtless,  by  their  principles  and  measures,  done  much 
injury,  and  to  none  more  than  themselves  ;  but  they  have  hitherto 
found  it,  as  all  who  make  the  attempt  will  ever  find  it,  impossible 
to  effect  its  overthrow.  Opposition  has  not  only  awakened  pro- 
founder  inquiry  among  many  concerning  its  claims,  but  served  to 
animate  the  zeal  of  Christian  men  on  its  behalf,  and  to  bind  them 
together  in  a  phalanx,  which,  going  forth  under  the  leadership  of 
the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  may  be  expected  to  place  the  institution, 
in  due  time,  above  "  the  strife  of  tongues,"  and  the  rude  foot  of 
practical  violation,  thereby  closing  the  history  of  Sabbatic  contro 
versies,  if  not  also  of  Sabbatic  literature,  in  England. 


UNITED    STATES. 

It  has  been  the  happiness  of  North  America  that  her  founda 
tions  were  to  such  an  extent  laid  in  religion,  and  that,  destined  to 
be  the  resort  of  persons  of  all  characters  and  fortunes  from  the 
old  world,  she  has  at  various  times  received  into  her  territory 
many  of  the  best  of  men,  bringing  with  them,  for  the  counterao- 


150  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

tion  of  her  evils  and  the  advancement  of  her  prosperity,  Christian 
principles,  institutions,  and  manners.  The  earnest  prayers  and 
hallowed  Sabbaths  of  her  founders  and  settlers  have  entailed  on 
her  a  rich  and  long-continued  blessing,  which  it  is  to  be  hoped 
will  prevail  to  the  overthrow  of  whatever  tends  to  cut  it  off. 

One  of  the  chief  cares  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  as  of  those  who 
preceded  them  from  Holland,  and  followed  them  from  England, 
was  the  due  observance  of  the  sacred  rest.  In  the  earliest 
records  of  the  Dutch  colonists  in  New  York,  there  are  decrees  of 
the  most  stringent  character^  intended  to  guard  the  infant  com 
munity  against  the  demoralizing  tendencies  of  Sabbath  profana 
tions.1  There  are  still  earlier  records  of  attention  on  the  part  of 
the  English  setttlers  to  this  subject.  "Whether  they  established 
themselves  in  New  Plymouth,  Salem,  or  Cambridge,  they  alike 
felt  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's  day  to  be  an  all- important 
matter.  Few  will  justify  all  the  measures  employed  by  them  for 
enforcing  the  duty,  but  their  reverence  and  regard  for  the  institu 
tion  were  indubitable.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  roots  of 
bitterness  springing  up  troubled  them.  The  most  serious  of  their 
early  trials  is  thus  described  by  Samuel  Rutherford  : — "  They 
were  not  well  established  in  New  England,  when  Antinomians 
sprang  up  among  them,  for  the  Church  cannot  be  long  without 
enemies.  These  were  libertines,  Familists,  Antinomians,  and  enthu 
siasts,  who  had  brought  these  wicked  opinions  out  of  Old  England 
with  them,  where  they  grew  under  prelacy.  I  heard  at  London, 
that  godly  preachers  were  in  danger  of  being  persecuted  by  Laud 
for  striving  to  reclaim  some  Antinomians.  Divers  of  them  be 
came  unclean,  they  had  no  prayer  in  their  family,  no  Sabbath,  in 
sufferable  pride,  hideous  lying."2  But  union  is  strength.  A  Synod 
was  called.  The  errors  were  unanswerably  refuted,  and  unani 
mously  condemned.  "And  so  the  Lord,"  says  Shepard,  who  was 
mainly  instrumental  in  closing  the  career  of  Ann  Hutchinson  and 
her  party,  "  within  one  year  wrought  a  great  change  among  us, 
having  delivered  the  country  from  war  with  the  Indians  and 
Familists,  who  rose  and  fell  together.''3 

1  Decrees  of  Peter  Stuyvesant,  1647,  1648.     The  Sabbath  in  New  York,  p.  6. 

2  Spiritual  Antichrist,  pp.  171, 180. 

•  Albro's  Life  of  Thomas  Shepard,  pp.  cxxv.  cxxvi 


UNITED  STATES.  151 

But  it  was  not  so  easy,  especially  by  fines  and  the  stocks,  to 
rid  the  country  of  some  other  errors  and  evils  in  relation  to  the 
Lord's  day.  We  find  several  ministers — Cotton,  Hooker,  and 
Gobbet — corresponding  with  Shepard,  and  stating  arguments  for 
the  common  doctrine,1  as  if  the  matter  engaged  their  serious  con 
sideration,  and  had  been  or  were  about  to  be  canvassed  in  the  pul 
pit  or  through  the  press.  The  points  on  one  or  other  of  which 
certain  persons  had  difficulties  and  doubts,  were  the  morality  and 
the  day  of  the  Sabbath.2  Mr.  Shepard,  we  know,  did  preach  a 
course  of  sermons  on  the  whole  subject  of  the  institution,  which 
were  "  thrown  into  the  form  of  theses  or  short  propositions  at  the 
earnest  request,  and  for  the  particular  use  of  the  students  of 
Harvard  College,"  and  afterwards,  in  substance,  published  in 
1649.3  Dr.  Albro,  his  American  biographer,  justly  eulogizes  the 
Theses  Sabbaticce,  as  "  a  masterly  discussion  of  the  morality,  the 
change,  the  beginning,  and  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath." 
Thomas  Shepard,  who  was  obnoxious  to  Laud,  retired  to  America 
in  1  635,  was  first  pastor  of  the  first  church,  Cambridge,  Mass., 
and  is  well  known  as  the  author  of  several  practical  works,  parti 
cularly  sermons  on  the  Parable  of  the  Ten  Virgins,  which,  when 
preached,  accomplished  their  object  of  contributing  to  put  down 
the  Antinomian  heresy  in  New  England.  It  was  said  of  him, 
that  he  "  scarce  ever  preached  a  sermon,  but  some  one  or  other  of 
his  congregation  was  struck  with  great  distress,  and  cried  out  in 
agony,  «  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved!"4  And  he  himself,  ad 
dressing  some  young  ministers,  said  on  his  deathbed,  "  First,  that 
the  studying  of  every  sermon  cost  him  tears ;  he  wept  in  the 
studying  of  every  sermon.  Secondly,  before  he  preached  any 
sermon,  he  got  good  by  it  himself.  Thirdly,  he  always  went  up 
into  the  pulpit,  as  if  he  were  to  give  up  his  accounts  unto  his 
Master."s 

The  Churches  in  New  England,  having,  at  a  Synod  in  1648, 
adopted  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  as  their  doctrinal 

1  Felt's  Eccl&nastical  History  of  New  England,  pp.  569,  604,  614. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  587,  614. 

s  Besides  the  edition  in  his  Collected  Works  (1853),  there  is  one  before  us  of  the  year 
1650,  and  we  have  seen  another  which  appeared  in  1655. 
*  Life,  p.  clxxx.  *  Mather's  Magnolia  (1702),  p.  238. 


152  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

creed,  continued  to  maintain  its  Sabbatic  as  well  as  other  prin 
ciples.  The  accounts  we  have  of  their  ministers,  in  the  Magnalia 
and  other  records,  show  how  holy  they  were,  and  how  observant 
of  the  sacred  rest.  What  they  practised  they  inculcated.  Thus 
John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  of  the  Indians,  himself  a  man  of  distin 
guished  piety  and  benevolence,  brought  his  converts  to  engage  that 
"  they  would  remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy  as  long 
as  they  lived."  At  a  Synod  held  in  1662,  the  churches  again  pro 
fessed  their  adherence  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Confes 
sion,  with  those  of  the  Savoy  Confession.  And  they  were  zealous 
to  uphold  the  practice  equally  as  the  theory  of  the  institution.  In 
1679,  when  various  calamities  had  befallen  the  country,  a  Synod 
was  convened  to  consider  the  reasons  and  remedies,  when  it  was 
agreed  that  one  of  the  causes  of  Providential  frowns  was  the  profa 
nation  by  many  of  the  Lord's  day.  Some  years  thereafter  we  find 
the  churches  solemnly  renewing  their  covenant  to  "  walk  circum 
spectly,"  and  declaring,  as  they  did  in  like  manner  of  various 
other  practices,  "  It  would  be  a  great  evil  in  us,  if  we  should  not 
keep  a  strict  guard  both  on  our  own  thoughts  as  well  as  words 
and  works  on  the  Lord's  day;  and  also  on  all  that  are  under  our 
influence,  to  restrain  them  from  the  violations  of  that  sacred  rest." 
The  scene  somewhat  resembles  the  remarkable  one  in  Scotland  at 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1596.  And  it  was 
more  to  promote  objects  of  this  practical  nature  than  to  combat 
error,  that  Increase  Mather,  and  his  son  Dr.  Cotton  Mather — 
both  valuable  and  voluminous  writers — published,  the  latter,  A 
Discourse  on  the  Observation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  in  1703,  the 
former,  Meditations  on  the  Sanctification  of  the  Lords  Day,  in 
1712  ;  and  that  Samuel  Willard,  a  minister  in  Boston,  and 
vice-president  of  Harvard  College,  wrote  so  largely  on  the  fourth 
commandment,  in  his  Body  of  Divinity,  which  was  printed 
in  1726. 

The  illustrious  Jonathan  Edwards  follows.  In  his  three  ser 
mons  on  the  perpetuity  and  change  of  the  Sabbath,  he  fully 
achieves  his  object,  which  is  the  establishment  of  two  propositions. 
"  First,  It  is  sufficiently  clear,  that  it  is  the  mind  of  God,  that 
one  day  of  the  week  should  be  devoted  to  rest  and  religious  exer 
cises,  throughout  all  ages  and  nations.  Second,  It  is  sufficiently 


UNITED  STATES.  153 

clear,  that,  under  the  gospel  dispensation,  this  day  is  the  first 
day  of  the  week."  If  he  has  not  brought  so  much  learning  to 
bear  on  the  question  as  did  Owen,  he  has  applied  to  it  a  mind 
even  more  acute  and  perspicacious  ;  and  we  must  hold  that  pro 
positions  "sufficiently  clear"  to  Edwards,  Lord  Bacon,  Locke, 
and  Burke,  in  common  with  the  great  body  of  Christian  men,  are 
not  evident  to  others  simply  because  they  will  not  see.  The 
sermons  appear  to  have  been  written  and  preached  within  a  few 
years  after  his  ordination  to  the  ministry,  and  the  publication 
of  them,  with  that  of  his  Journal,  and  Life  of  JBrainerd,  must 
have  contributed  greatly  to  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  in 
America,  as  well  as  wherever  these  works  have  been  read.  It 
is  worthy  of  remark,  that  a  discourse  preached  by  him  in  condem 
nation  of  the  prevailing  practice  of  devoting  the  evening  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  the  evening  after  the  stated  public  lecture,  to  visit 
ing  and  diversion,  was  the  means  of  originating  the  first  remark 
able  revival  of  religion  (1734),  under  his  ministry  at  Northamp 
ton.  A  pupil  of  Edwards,  and  editor  of  his  works,  Dr.  Samuel 
Hopkins,  entertained  views  in  common  with  him  on  this  as  on 
various  other  subjects,  and  has  expounded  the  doctrine  of  the 
Sabbath  at  considerable  length  in  his  System  of  Doctrine. 

Dr.  Nathan  Strong  and  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight  had  been  class- 
fellows  of  equal  merit,  and  were  life-long  friends.  The  former 
was  "the  learned  and  very  useful"  minister  of  a  Presbyterian 
congregation  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  "distinguished  for 
his  discernment  and  knowledge  of  men."  His  two  volumes  of 
sermons,  printed  in  1798,  include  one  on  the  Sanctification,  and 
another  on  the  benefits  of  the  Sabbath,  both  exceedingly  good, 
and  worthy  of  the  friend  of  Dwight.  While  Strong  was  en 
gaged  in  the  publication  of  his  work,  Timothy  Dwight,  the  grand 
son  of  Edwards,  had  begun  to  deliver  the  course  of  sermons,  the 
publication  of  which  has  given  so  much  celebrity  to  his  name. 
His  contribution  to  the  cause  of  the  Sabbath  amounts  to  five 
sermons  on  the  Fourth  Precept  of  the  Decalogue,  which  form  a 
considerable  treatise,  and  must,  during  his  more  than  twenty  years' 
presidency  of  Yale  College,  have  been  pronounced  once  in  the  hear 
ing  of  most  of  the  young  men  under  his  care — in  numbers  that 
soon  increased  from  one  hundred  and  ten  to  three  hundred  and 


154  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

thirteen — producing  convictions  and  impressions,  of  "  the  perpe 
tuity,  sacred  ness,  and  importance"  of  the  institution,  to  be  carried 
with  them  through  life,  and  through  them  reproduced  in  thousands 
of  other  minds.  And  from  the  time  of  their  publication,  some 
where  between  1817  and  1819,  the  eloquent  prelections  must 
have  served  in  America  and  in  this  country  to  awaken  similar  con 
victions  in  multitudes  of  readers.  The  late  Bishop  of  Calcutta, 
referring  to  the  author,  said,  "  This  last  name  deserves  especial 
notice.  Dr.  D wight,  as  well  as  his  illustrious  countryman, 
Edwards,  has  honoured  the  American  school  of  theology — rapidly 
increasing  in  importance — with  a  most  convincing  and  able  discus 
sion  of  the  question  in  all  its  branches,  both  theoretical  and 
practical :  they  perhaps  form  the  best  of  our  modern  treatises, 
though  it  would  be  unjust  to  Dr.  Humphrey,  of  Ainherst  College, 
to  withhold  a  tribute  of  applause  from  his  excellent  Essays." l 

If  America  had  produced  no  other  works  on  the  Sabbath  than 
have  been  named,  it  would,  her  disadvantages  and  comparative 
youth  considered,  have  been  no  small  honour ;  but  we  have  to 
add  her  more  recent  contributions  to  the  argument  and  literature 
of  the  subject,  which  surpass  previous  exertions  in  number,  if  not 
in  worth.  There  are  the  excellent  Manual  of  Professor  Agnew, 
with  its  able  Introductory  Essay  by  Professor  Samuel  Miller,  and 
the  very  interesting  Reports  and  Permanent  Documents  of  "  the 
American  and  Foreign  Sabbath  Union."  Four  of  these  Docu 
ments,  reprinted  by  the  American  Tract  Society,  with  the  name 
of  Dr.  Justin  Edwards,  Secretary  to  the  Sabbath  Union,  as  author, 
form  The  Sabbath  Manual.  There  are  also  works  by  Phelps, 
Drs.  Stone  and  Barnes,  which  we  have  not  seen.  Drs.  Emmons, 
Woods,  and  Wayland,  the  last  avowedly  borrowing  from  Gurney, 
devote  portions  of  their  able  writings  to  the  institution.  The, 
Rev.  L.  Coleman  has  brought  his  historical  lore  to  the  enforce 
ment  of  Sabbatic  claims  and  duties  in  his  Christian  Antiquities, 
and  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  in  the  Bibliotheca 
Sacra  (1844).  Dr.  Stevens  has  eloquently  pleaded  the  obliga 
tions  and  blessings  of  the  Lord's  day  in  a  Sermon,  and  Professor 
Dabney  has  ably  discussed  "the  Sabbath  Controversy"  in  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Review.  The  Tract  Society  has  printed  a 

1  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson's  Sevan  SeriMns.     Preface. 


UNITED  STATES.  15$ 

number  of  useful  publications  on  the  observance  of  the  institution, 
including  valuable  tracts  by  Drs.  Plumer,  Spring,  Nevins,  and 
Schmucker  ;  and  the  Sabbath  Committee  of  New  York,  amidst 
various  zealous  and  successful  exertions  for  checking  Sabbath 
desecration,  has  issued,  with  the  same  view,  some  important  do 
cuments.  But  among  American  publications  of  recent  times,  we 
have  seen  no  abler  defences  of  the  weekly  holy  day  than  two 
articles  which  have  appeared  in  the  Princeton  Review,  under  the 
titles,  "Sunday  Mails"  (1831)  and  "Sunday  Laws"  (1859),  the 
latter  said  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge. 

We  have  little  to  state  as  to  what  has  been  written  in  America 
on  the  other  side  of  the  question.  The  Sabbatarians,  whose 
Church  membership  is  said  to  be  7000,  have,  by  a  magazine,  a 
newspaper,  and  a  Tract  Society,  endeavoured  to  raise  bulwarks  for 
the  defence  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath.  We  have  before  us  a 
series  of  books  and  tracts,  old  and  new,  issued  by  the  Society. 
There  are  two  histories  of  the  body — one  by  Clarke  in  1811,  re 
cording  its  rise  and  progress  in  the  States,  the  other  by  Mrs.  Davis 
in  1851,  embracing  its  annals  in  all  ages  and  lands.  But  there 
have  been  and  are  more  formidable  opponents  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath  than  the  Sabbatarians.  An  American  Review,  now  ex 
tinct,  propounded  some  years  ago  the  doctrine  that  the  Sabbath 
was  not  originally  a  day  devoted  to  the  exercises  of  religion,  and 
that  it  is  now  most  appropriately  kept  by  festivity  and  amusement. 
The  article  was  headed  Sunday  Mails,  and  drew  forth  the  able 
reply  under  the  same  title  already  mentioned.  There  appeared  in 
1853  a  volume  in  which  the  question  is  discussed,  Whether  there 
is  any  authority  for  the  Christian  Sabbath  1 — the  Rev.  J.  N.  Brown 
supporting  the  affirmative,  and  W.  B.  Taylor  contending  for  the 
negative.  And  we  observe  from  the  paper  Sunday  Laws  that  in 
stances  of  the  most  daring  opposition  to  the  Sabbath  have  lately 
occurred  in  the  country,  in  which  a  William  Logan  Fisher,  and 
some  imported  Germans,  have  been  conspicuous.  At  a  meeting 
of  the  latter,  it  was  resolved  that  "  any  attem»pt,  direct  or  indirect, 
to  exact  the  keeping  of  some  holy  day,  enjoined,  or  supposed  to  be 
enjoined,  by  the  Jewish  or  Christian  Scriptures,  as  the  first  or 
seventh  day  of  the  week,  is  alike  defiant  of  natural  right 
and  constitutional  law."  Fisher,  in  his  History  of  the  Institution 


156         SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

of  the  Sabbath-day,  contends  against  Sunday  laws,  his  reviewer 
informs  us,  on  the  threefold  ground,  that  the  Bible  is  not  the 
Word  of  God  ;  that  the  Bible  itself  does  not  require  such  an  ob 
servance  of  the  Sabbath  as  our  Sunday  laws  assume  ;  and  that, 
admitting  the  Divine  origin  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  conceding 
that  the  observance  of  one  day  in  seven  as  a  holy  Sabbath  to  God 
is  therein  enjoined,  it  was  a  purely  Jewish  institution,  and  is  not 
binding  upon  Christians.  "  It  is  well  for  people  to  understand 
each  other,"  says  the  reviewer,  who  concludes  a  very  thorough 
exposure  of  the  lawless  liberty  claimed  by  Fisher  and  the  Germans, 
in  these  words  of  plainness  and  power  :  "  This  country  was  settled 
by  Protestant  Christians.  They  possessed  the  land  ;  they  estab 
lished  its  institutions ;  they  formed  themselves  into  towns,  states, 
and  nation.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  regarding  the  Bible  as 
the  Word  of  God  binding  the  conscience  of  every  man  with  Divine 
authority,  they  were  governed  by  it  in  all  their  organizations, 
whether  for  business  or  civil  polity.  Others  have  since  come  into* 
the  country  by  thousands  ;  some  Papists,  some  Jews,  some  Infi 
dels,  some  Atheists.  All  were  welcomed  ;  all  are  admitted  to 
equal  rights  and  privileges.  All  are  allowed  to  acquire  property, 
to  vote  in  all  elections,  made  eligible  to  all  offices,  and  invested 
with  an  equal  influence  in  all  public  concerns.  All  are  allowed  to 
worship  as  they  please,  or  not  at  all,  if  they  please.  No  man  is 
molested  for  his  religion,  or  for  his  want  of  religion.  No  man  is 
required  to  profess  any  particular  form  of  faith,  or  to  join  any 
religious  association.  Is  not  this  liberty  enough  1  It  seems  not. 
Our  '  Free  Germans '  and  other  Anti-Sabbatarians  insist  upon  it 
that  we  must  turn  infidels,  give  up  our  God,  our  Saviour,  and  our 
Bible,  so  far  as  all  public  or  governmental  action  is  concerned. 
They  require  that  the  joint  stock  into  which  they  have  been  re 
ceived  as  partners,  and  in  which  they  constitute  even  numerically 
a  very  small  minority,  should  be  conducted  according  to  their  prin 
ciples,  and  not  according  to  ours.  They  demand,  not  merely  that 
they  may  be  allowed  to  disregard  the  Sabbath,  but  that  the  public 
business  must  go  on  on  that  day  ;  that  all  public  servants  must  be 
employed  ;  all  public  property,  highways,  and  railroads  should  be 
used.  They  say  we  must  not  pray  in  our  legislative  bodies,  or  have 
chaplains  in  our  hospitals,  prisons,  navy,  or  army  ;  that  we  must 


SCOTLAND.  157 

not  introduce  the  Bible  into  our  public  schools,  or  do  anything  in 
a  public  capacity  which  implies  that  we  are  Protestant  Christians. 
Those  men  do  not  know  what  Protestant  Christians  are.  It  is 
their  characteristic,  as  they  humbly  hope  and  believe,  to  respect 
the  rights  of  other  men,  and  stand  up  for  their  own.  And,  there 
fore,  they  say  to  all — Infidels  and  Atheists — to  all  who  demand 
that  the  Bible  shall  not  be  the  rule  of  action  for  us  as  individuals, 
and  as  a  Government,  you  ask  what  it  is  impossible  can  be  granted. 
We  must  obey  God.  We  must  carry  our  religion  into  our  families, 
our  workshops,  our  banking-houses,  our  municipal  and  other 
governments  ;  and  if  you  cannot  live  with  Christians,  you  must 
go  elsewhere."1 

That  the  sanguine  hope  of  another  American  writer,  as  ex 
pressed  in  the  following  words,  may  be  fulfilled,  is  devoutly  to  be 
wished  :  "  If  the  wise,  and  good,  and  patriotic  in  our  land  per 
severe,  and  especially  if  ministers  of  the  gospel  generally  bring  the 
influence  of  the  gospel  to  bear  on  this  subject,  the  day,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe,  is  not  far  distant  when,  by  the  blessing  of 
the  God  of  the  Sabbath,  the  greater  part  of  our  nation  will  be,  at 
least  externally,  a  Sabbath-keeping  people."2 


SCOTLAND. 

It  may  to  some  appear  out  of  place  to  introduce,  under  the 
head  of  controversies  on  the  Sabbath,  a  country  where  we  ought 
to  look  for  the  fruits  of  peace  and  sanctity  rather  than  for  the 
turmoils  aiid  desolations  of  war.  And  it  is  true  that,  from  the 
Reformation  to  the  present  time,  the  Scottish  Church  has  had  but 
one  doctrine  on  the  subject ;  and  that  for  a  long  period  general 
acclaim  accorded  to  the  nation  a  distinction  above  all  others  for  a 
sacred  regard  to  the  Lord's  day.  But  besides  the  aversion  to  holy 
restraints  and  duties  common  to  human  nature  everywhere,  the 
peculiar  exposure  of  the  Scots  to  foreign  aggression  against  their 
worship  and  liberties,  and  the  perfervidum  ingenium,  which  led 
them  to  carry  the  war  for  truth  and  right  into  other  lands,  have 

1  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical  Review  for  January  1860. 

8  Dr  Schiuuckcr's  Appeal  in  behalf  of  the  Christian  Svblath,  p.  15. 

8 


158  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

engaged  them  in  Sabbatic  contests  not  a  few,  and  originated  a 
Sabbatic  literature  equal  in  value,  if  not  in  amount,  to  that  of 
any  country. 

For  the  greater  part  of  three  centuries  has  the  institution  en 
countered  strong  opposition  from  without.  A  Scotsman,  James  vi., 
from  being  a  boastful  admirer  of  Presbytery,  became  its  avowed 
and  bitter  foe,  and  after  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  England, 
speedily  availed  himself  of  his  increased  power  to  attempt  the 
subversion  of  the  religious  polity  and  rights,  including  the  Sabbath, 
of  his  native  land.  Charles  i.  was  equally  disposed,  though  leas 
able,  to  carry  on  the  nefarious  work.  The  measures  with  the 
same  view  adopted  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  n.  and  James  n. — 
measures  dooming  within  a  period  of  twenty-eight  years  no  fewer 
than  18,000  persons  to  death,  or  to  sufferings  worse  than  death — 
have  certainly,  for  folly  and  wickedness,  been  rarely  paralleled  in 
the  history  of  any  country.  During  such  a  time  it  was  to  be  pre 
sumed  that  the  Lord's  day  would  be  trampled  under  foot  by  one 
class,  who,  indeed,  selected  it  as  the  season  for  their  bloodiest  deeds, 
and  that  it  could  not  be  observed  by  the  other  as  they  would. 
But  the  doctrine  of  its  sanctity  formed  a  part  of  the  testimony, 
which  they  earnestly  maintained,  and  for  which  they  were  willing 
to  die.  It  has  been  well  said,  that  the  sacrifices  of  missionaries 
and  of  their  supporters  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  so 
honourable  to  our  times,  are  not  for  a  moment  to  be  compared 
with  the  expenditure  of  suffering  and  substance  which  its  conser 
vation  cost  our  fathers.  And  more  effectual  than  even  persecution 
has  been  the  influence  of  imported  people  and  customs  from  Eng 
land  and  Ireland  for  impairing  the  religion  and  Sabbath  observ 
ances  of  Scotland.  But  evil  has  been  to  some  extent  the  occasion 
of  good,  and  it  is  a  pleasing  reflection  that,  despite  the  follies  and 
cruelties  of  the  Stuart  kings,  the  deadening  influence  of  prelacy 
and  moderation,  and,  in  our  own  day,  the  corrupting  power  of 
English  wealth  and  Irish  poverty,  the  popular  belief  and  feeling  of 
the  country  have,  from  the  period  of  the  Reformation  down  to  the 
present  time,  been  eminently  Sabbatical. 

Apart  from  the  press,  much  has  been  done  to  secure  for  Scot 
land  her  hallowed  day  of  rest.  The  Parliament  from  time  to 
time  passed  Acts,  for  the  most  part  suggested  by  the  Church 


SCOTLAND.  159 

Courts,  which,  according  to  the  best  authorities,  amounted  ulti 
mately  to  a  very  complete  legal  provision  for  the  protection  of  the 
Lord's  day  against  open  desecration.  Still  more  numerous  are 
the  Acts  of  her  supreme  ecclesiastical  court,  which  not  only  in 
1566  and  1575  abjured  all  human  holidays,  but  by  its  decrees, 
and  the  direct  exercise  of  discipline,  did  much  subsequently  to 
maintain  sound  doctrine  and  right  practice  in  reference  to  the 
weekly  holy  day  throughout  the  nation.  Three  instances  are 
worthy  of  particular  notice.  One  of  these  occurred  in  1596, 
when  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly  were  stirred  to  "  great 
searching  of  heart "  as  to  their  treatment  of  the  Fourth  and  other 
Commandments  of  the  Divine  Law,  melted  to  genuine  sorrow  for 
sin,  and  warmed  with  a  love  which  faithfully  and  boldly  extended 
its  care  to  his  Majesty's  household,  the  whole  resulting  in  the 
spread  of  similar  exercises  and  feelings,  and  in  a  general  reforma 
tion  over  the  land.  Another  belongs  to  the  year  1638,  when 
the  Assembly,  so  celebrated  for  its  connexion  with  the  Second 
Reformation,  excommunicated  the  greater  part  of  the  prelates  for, 
with  other  grave  offences,  their  shameless  profanations  of  the 
Lord's  day.  The  ratification  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith,  with  the  full  arrangement  of  the  form  of  worship  and 
discipline,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1647,  which  completed 
the  Reformation,  is  the  third  instance. 

The  inferior  courts  were  no  less  watchful  over  the  interests  of 
practical  religion.  The  Synod  of  Lothian,  for  example,  censured 
Spotswood,  minister  at  Calder,  afterwards  the  noted  Archbishop, 
and  Law,  minister  at  Kirkliston,  for  playing  at  foot-ball  on  the 
Lord's  day.1  The  Session  records  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  and  throughout  the  seventeenth,  teem  with 
proofs  of  the  diligence  with  which  ministers  and  elders  sought  to 
promote  the  piety  and  morals  of  the  people,  and  especially  their 

1  Mr.  John  Davidson,  minister  at  Prestonpans,  by  whose  powerful  appeals  the  Assembly 
of  1596  was  so  deeply  impressed,  was  Moderator  of  the  Synod  at  the  time,  and  urged 
that  the  offenders  should  be  deposed,  "  but  the  Synod  agreed  not  thereto ;  and  when 
they  were  called  in,  he  said,  'Come  in,  ye  pretty  foot-ball  men — the  Synod  hath  or 
dained  you  only  to  be  rebuked  ;'  and  turning  to  the  Synod,  he  said,  '  And  now,  bre 
thren,  let  me  tell  you  what  reward  you  shall  get  for  your  lenity ;  these  two  men  shall 
trample  on  your  necks,  and  the  necks  of  the  ministrie  of  Scotland.'" — Livingstone'^ 
Memorable  Characteristics.  Wod.  Soc.  Sel.  Biograph.  vol.  ii.  p.  296. 


160  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

obedience  to  the  Fourth  Commandment.  Burnet,  when  referring  to 
the  time  immediately  prior  to  the  Restoration,  says  : — "  They  kept 
scandalous  persons  under  a  severe  discipline  :  for  breach  of  Sab 
bath,  for  an  oath,  or  the  least  disorder  in  drunkenness,  persons 
were  cited  before  the  church-session,  that  consisted  of  ten  or 
twelve  of  the  chief  of  the  parish,  who,  with  the  minister,  had  this 
care  upon  them  ;  and  were  solemnly  reproved  for  it."1  Among 
the  evils  inherited  from  Rome,  was  the  custom  of  performing 
comedies  on  the  Lord's  day,  which  continued  for  some  years  after 
the  death  of  Knox,  but  was  increasingly  discountenanced,  and  ere 
long,  through  the  influence  of  the  sessions  and  magistrates,  discon 
tinued.  In  1754,  the  sessions  commenced  the  practice  of  em 
ploying  individuals  of  their  number  to  traverse  the  towns  on 
Sabbaths  and  other  seasons  of  public  worship  for  the  purpose  of 
causing  notice  to  be  taken  of  such  as  should  be  found  "  vaging 
abroad  upon  the  streets,  and  of  having  them  cited  before  the 
session."2 

But  probably  the  faithful  public  ministrations,  and  the  assidu 
ous  labours  in  private,  of  the  excellent  ministers,  with  whom  Scot 
land  has  been  more  or  less  favoured  in  all  periods  of  her  reformed 
history,  have  contributed  more  than  anything  else  to  the  forma 
tion  and  maintenance  of  her  character  as  a  Sabbath-keeping 
country.  When  we  think  of  such  a  rnan  presiding  successively 
over  the  students  of  Glasgow  and  St.  Andrews  as  Andrew  Melville, 
who  could  in  the  Privy-Council  pronounce  Archbishop  Bancroft  a 
Sabbath-breaker  ;  of  John  Welch,  on  one  occasion  weaning  an 
easy-minded  minister  from  his  "  bow-butts  and  archery"  on  the 
Sabbath  afternoon,  by  engaging  him  to  spend  that  time  with  him 
self  and  his  friends,  John  Stuart  and  Hugh  Kennedy,  in  prayer, 
and,  on  another,  declaring  to  a  gentleman,  with  whom  he  had  in 
vain  remonstrated  against  the  patronizing  of  foot-ball  and  other 
pastimes  on  the  Lord's  day,  that  he  should  be  cast  out  from  house 
and  hold,  words  which  the  unhappy  man  had  soon  to  confess  were 


1  Hist,  of  his  Own  Time  (1850),  p.  102. 

2  The  persons  so  employed  were  called  Searchers.    Principal  Lee,  in  his  evidence 
given  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1832,  says,  that  the  practice 
continued  for  a  century  and  a  half.     But  similar  measures  have  been  resorted  to  occa 
sionally  in  later  times. 


SCOTLAND,  161 

verified ;  of  Henderson,  who,  when  Charles  i.  had  attended  the 
High  Church  in  the  forenoon  of  the  Sabbath  after  his  arrival  in 
Edinburgh  in  1641,  but  spent  the  afternoon  in  playing  at  golf, 
conversed  on  the  enormity  with  his  Majesty,  who  afterwards  gave 
constant  attendance,  as  he  did  also  at  family  worship  performed 
morning  and  evening  in  the  palace  by  that  faithful  minister  ;  and 
of  William  Guthrie,  who,  by  giving  an  equivalent  for  the  profits  of 
each  day's  shooting,  could  prevail  on  a  parishioner  to  exchange  on 
the  Sabbath  the  fowling-piece  and  the  field,  for  the  Bible  and  the 
Church,  till  he  learned  that  godliness  was  its  own  sufficient  re 
ward,  and  became,  as  an  elder,  an  auxiliary  to  his  minister  in 
winning  men  from  evil ;  when  we  think  of  such  individuals — 
specimens  of  the  ministry  of  their  time — we  see  how  adapted  the 
means  were  to  make  the  Church  of  Scotland  the  "  Philadelphia" 
portrayed  by  Kirkton  and  Burnet.  And  when  we  remember 
Halyburton's  dying  counsels  to  his  boy  David,  "  not  to  come  near 
anybody  that  would  swear,  lie,  speak  what  was  bad,  or  break  the 
Sabbath  ;"  Boston's  lasting  penitence  for  a  youthful  violation  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment ;  Ebenezer  Erskine's  searching  words 
from  the  pulpit,  "  I  am  ready  to  judge  that  folk's  acquaintance 
with  God  himself  is  known  by  the  regard  they  show  to  his  holy 
day ;"  Alexander  MoncriefFs  pungent  answer  to  the  man  who 
demanded  to  know  his  right  to  advise  him  against  a  Sabbath  ex 
cursion,  "  You  will  learn  that  at  the  day  of  judgment ;"  and 
Brown  of  Haddington's  saying,  by  which  he  endeavoured  to  regu 
late  himself  and  his  family,  that  "  conversation  on  the  common 
affairs  of  life,  or  even  on  the  more  external  and  trivial  matters  of 
the  Church,  on  the  Lord's  day,  was  unsuitable  to  the  spiritual 
exercises  of  the  day,  and  offensive  to  God ;"  when  we  remember 
such  men,  we  recognise  the  worthy  successors  of  the  Scottish 
Reformers  and  Covenanters,  and  the  fitting  means  of  perpetuating 
among  their  countrymen  the  honours  and  blessings  of  the  day  of 
rest. 

Nor  has  Scotland,  amidst  difficulties  of  no*  ordinary  kind,  merely 
maintained  the  Sabbath  at  home.  She  has  furthered  its  interests 
abroad.  She  helped  to  equip  Teellinck  for  his  successful  contest 
in  Zealand.  Her  Welch,  Boyd,  Forbes,  Dury,  Andrew  Melville^ 
Brown,  and  Crawford,  with  others,  exemplified,  and  in  some  in- 

L 


162         SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

stances  publicly  defended,  their  principles  in  reference  to  tho 
weekly  holy  day,  in  various  parts  of  the  Continent.  Livingstone, 
Blair,  and  their  compeers,  spread  those  principles  in  Ireland. 
The  stand  made  by  Scotland  for  her  Church  and  freedom  had  no 
slight  influence  on  the  summoning  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and 
on  the  assertion  by  Englishmen  of  their  down-trodden  Sabbatic 
and  other  rights — a  struggle  which  she  materially  helped  also  to 
maintain.  And  though  she  failed  to  secure  permanently  for 
England  an  ecclesiastical  constitution  like  her  own,  her  efforts 
were  not  fruitless,  as,  to  mention  nothing  else,  they  were  emi 
nently  tributary  to  the  production  of  that  noble  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  kindred  documents,  which  have  been  the  means  of 
lasting  good,  though  chiefly  to  her  own  people,  yet  largely  also  to 
the  inhabitants  of  other  regions  of  the  globe.1  Eutherford  en 
tered  the  lists  with  Saltmarsh.  But  this  brings  us  to  the  Sab 
batic  literature  of  Scotland,  a  goodly  portion  of  which  we  owe  to 
the  efforts  of  her  sons  to  vindicate  their  views  of  the  Lord's  day 
in  foreign  lands. 

We  have  met  with  no  very  early  specimen  of  Scottish  author 
ship  on  the  subject.  Writers  may  be  found — like  Cowper  in  his 
Holy  Alphabet;  Malcolm,  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Acts ;  David 
Calderwood,  in  his  Altare  Damascenum  ;  and  John  Weemse  of 
Lathocker,  in  his  Christian  Synagogue— who  briefly  express  the 
views  of  their  country.  The  Exposition  of  the  Laws  of  Moses,  by 
the  last-mentioned  author,  which  appeared  in  1632,  is  the  first 
Scottish  work,  so  far  as  we  know,  that  treats  with  considerable 
fulness  of  the  institution.  The  works  of  Weemse  generally  give 
evidence  of  "  very  considerable  learning  and  information."  In 
the  Re-examination  of  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  belonging  to 
the  year  1636,  Calderwood  has  what  may  be  called  a  Treatise  on 
the  Sabbath,  in  which  he  defends  the  commonly-received  doctrine 
with  learning  and  power.  Dr.  Guild,  of  Aberdeen,  wrote  in  1637 
an  earnest  remonstrance  against  a  particular  form  of  Sabbath  pro 
fanation  in  his  neighbourhood.  But  the  next  writer,  who;  though 
he  resided  and  published  in  England,  was  born  and  educated  in 

*  I  am  informed  that  Mr.  Henderson  had  a  chief  hand  in  drawing  up  the  Confession 
of  Faith  and  Catechisms,  and  particularly  the  Dirtctory  for  Worship  and  Ordination,— 
Wod-rcvr  Correspondence,  vol.  iii.  pp.  33,  33. 


SCOTLAND.  163 

Scotland,  calls  for  more  particular  notice,  both  as  the  work  is  one 
oi  special  merit,  and  the  author  little  known.  In  1639,  when 
the  reign  of  terror  in  England  was  approaching  its  climax,  Dr. 
Thomas  Young,  then  vicar  of  Stowmarket,  in  Suffolk,  issued  an 
anonymous  treatise  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day.  To  do  so  at  all 
in  such  circumstances  proved  his  zeal  and  courage  ;  and  yet  that 
the  Dies  Dominica  appeared  without  the  name  of  writer,  pub 
lisher,  printer,  or  the  place  where  it  was  prepared  or  printed,  was 
a  sign  of  the  times,  and,  along  with  the  fact  that  no  prosecution 
followed,  showed  that  the  author  knew  how  to  temper  his  ardour 
with  the  discretion  which  has  been  called  the  better  part  of  valour. 
The  volume  having,  thirty-two  years  after  its  publication,  been 
commended  by  Baxter  as  "  the  moderatest,  soundest,  and  strongest 
treatise  on  the  subject  that  he  had  seen,"  many  were  led  to  in 
quire  after  it,  and  a  translation  of  it,  which  a  worthy  knight  had 
by  him,  was  published  in  1672.  In  a  Preface  to  the  translation, 
Baxter  extols  the  author  as  a  man  "  eminent  in  his  time  for  great 
learning,  judgment,  piety,  and  humility ;  but  especially  for  his 
acquaintance  with  the  writings  of  the  ancient  teachers  of  the 
churches,  and  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  former  ages."  Dr. 
Young  was  born  at  Loncarty,  Perthshire,  in  1587  or  1588, 
studied  at  St.  Andrews,  settled  in  London,  or  its  neighbourhood, 
as  a  teacher,1  was  preceptor  of  John  Milton,  and,  in  succession, 
minister  to  the  congregation  of  English  merchants  at  Hamburg, 
vicar  for  thirty  years  of  Stowmarket,  minister  of  Duke's  Place, 
London,  and  a  member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  and  master 
of  Jesus'  College,  Cambridge.  From  this  last-mentioned  situation, 
which  he  rilled  with  great  ability,  he  was  ejected  for  refusing  the 
engagement,  or  promise  of  fidelity  to  the  Commonwealth  as  esta 
blished  without  a  King  or  House  of  Lords.  He  was  one  of  the 
authors  of  Smectymnuus,  having,  according  to  Baillie,  contributed 
"  the  most  part"  of  it.  The  man  who  filled  so  many  important 
offices  with  the  highest  reputation,  and  who  impressed  alike  the 
experienced  Baxter  and  the  youthful  Milton,  with  feelings  of  re 
gard  and  admiration,  the  latter  representing  him  as  the  half  of 
his  life,  and  as  having  inspired  him  with  the  love  of  poetry,  must 

1  For  these  facts  we  are  indebted  to  the  researches  of  Masson.  —See  his  Life  of  Milton, 
pp.  53,  54, 


164  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

have  been  distinguished  by  intellectual  gifts  and  moral  excellence 
of  no  common  order.1  * 

Among  the  many  other  Scottish  writers  who  did  honour  to  their 
country  and  to  the  seventeenth  century,  and  who  asserted  the 
Divine  claims  of  the  Sabbath,  we  are  not  aware  of  any  one  who 
wrote  a  separate  treatise  or  tract  on  the  institution  except  Brown 
of  Wamphray,  and  Crawford,  whose  able  works  have  been  men 
tioned  in  connexion  with  the  controversies  in  Holland.  Some  of 
them,  however,  handled  the  subject  in  their  expositions  of  the 
Decalogue.  William  Colville,  Principal  of  the  University  of  Edin 
burgh,  has  devoted  to  the  Fourth  Commandment  some  seven 
teen  pages  of  his  Philosophia  Moralis  Christiana,  which  appeared 
in  1670.  The  views  of  the  celebrated  Leighton,  successively 
Presbyterian  minister  of  Newbottle,  Principal  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  Bishop  of  Dunblane,  and  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  are 
more  briefly,  though  not  less  decidedly,  expressed.  And  the  Law 
Unsealed  of  the  eminent  James  Durham,  published  in  1675  by 
his  widow,  contains  a  very  full  and  able  discussion  of  Sabbatic 
doctrine  and  duty,  and  discovers  the  learning  and  deep  piety  which 
are  evident  in  his  other  writings.  It  received  the  warm  commen 
dation  of  Dr.  Owen,  and  its  numerous  editions  attest  the  large 
measure  of  popular  favour  which  it  has  won.  Robert  Barclay, 
the  Quaker,  dissented  from  the  popular  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath, 
"  knowing  no  moral  obligation  by  THE  FOURTH  COMMAND,  or 
elsewhere,  to  keep  the  FIRST  DAY  OF  THE  WEEK  more  than  any 
other,"  but  keeping  it,  nevertheless,  for  reasons  of  necessity,  equity, 
mercy,  and  apostolic  example.  In  the  following  century,  while 
notices  of  the  institution  may  be  found,  only  a  few  contributions, 
in  a  separate  form,  or  to  any  extent,  were  made  to  its  argument 
and  literature.  Bishop  Burnet  devotes  one  of  his  Fourteen  Ser 
mons,  and  J.  Sfmall],  "  a  Presbyter  of  the  Episcopal  Church  of 

1  See  Milton's  Elegia  Quarto,  ad  Thomam  Junium,  and  his  Familiar  Epistles,  of  which 
tvo  are  addressed  to  Dr.  Young.     In  the  Elegy  the  poet  says  :— 

"  Hie  quidem  est  animae  plusquam  pars  alt  era  nostrao, 
Dimidio  Vitae  vivere  cogor  ego. 

Primus  ego  Aonios  illc  praeunte  recessus 

Lustrabam,  et  bifidi  sacra  vireta  jugi ; 
Pieriosque  hausi  latices,  Clioque  favente, 

Castalio  sparsi  laeta  ter  ora  mero  " 


SCOTLAND.  165 

Scotland,"  a  tract,  to  the  subject  in  1713,  the  latter  being  a  de 
fence  of  the  morality  of  the  Sabbath,  in  answer,  particularly,  to 
the  arguments  of  Philip  Limborch.  There  came  out  in  the  same 
or  preceding  year  the  well-known  Treatise  of  Willison,  his  earliest 
work,  which  must,  in  its  various  editions,  have  been  a  blessing  to 
his  country.  The  Sabbatism  of  the  People  of  God,  by  John  Glas, 
appeared  in  1747,  and  is  to  be  found,  with  his  Three  Divine 
Rests,  in  his  collected  works.  But  nowhere  is  there  to  be  found 
an  account  of  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  the  Sabbath — clearer, 
more  satisfactory,  or  more  adapted  for  general  usefulness — than  is 
given  in  the  second  part  of  the  Synod's  or  Fisher's  Catechism, 
which  appeared  in  1760.  The  biographer  of  Mr.  Fisher,  referring 
to  this  exposition  of  the  Shorter  Catechism,  says — "  At  the  veiy 
first  meeting  of  the  Associate  (Burgher)  Synod,  Mr.  Fisher,  along 
with  Messrs.  Ebenezer  and  Ralph  Erskine,  was  appointed  to  carry 
forward  a  wise  and  important  plan,  which  had  been  under  the 
consideration  of  the  Associate  body  in  its  undivided  state." x  Fisher 
was  followed  by  Brown  of  Haddington  in  his  Christian  Journal, 
System  of  Theology,  and  other  works.  John  Barclay,  the  Berean, 
having  in  1776  published  an  Essay  on  the  First  Day  of  the 
Week,  upholding  its  sacred  claims,  a  reply  by  "a  Christian 
Church,"  and  affirming,  with  Edmund  Porter,  that  Christ  is  the 
Christian's  only  Sabbath,  came  out  in  the  same  year.  In  1778 
we  for  the  first  time  meet  with  a  Scottish  working  man — "  a 
tradesman  of  Montrose" — taking  part  in  the  controversy-.2 

But  the  present  century  has  in  Scotland,  as  in  England,  been 
peculiarly  affluent  in  publications  having  for  their  object  the  illus- 
•  tration  and  defence  of  the  weekly  sacred  rest.  After  an  excel 
lent  anonymous  pamphlet  of  1800,  there  appeared  Essays  by 
James  Mitchell  (1802),  Samuel  GilfillanS  (1804),  and  Patrick 
M'Farlane  (1805).  The  celebrated  Poem  of  Grahame  was  given 
to  the  world  in  1804,  reaching  its  third  edition  in  the  following 

i  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Rev.  James  Fisher,  by  John  Brown,  D.  D. 

a  The  writer  published  a  third  edition  of  his  Treatise  in  1786,  disclosing  himself  as 
"  Alexander  Jackson,  silversmith,"  and  in  that  year  a  resident  in  Alloa. 

8  The  fact  that  this  Essay,  which  in  substance  had  appeared  in  the  Christian  Maga 
zine  towards  the  close  of  the  preceding  century,  passed  in  the  course  of  twenty  years 
through  fourteen  editions,  one  of  them  in  the  Gaelic  language,  may  perhaps  justify  ua 
for  offering  no  apology  of  filial  partiality  and  gratitude  for  this  special  notice. 


166  SKETCHES  OP  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

year,  and  its  fourth  in  1806.  John  Struthers,  a  shoemaker,  and 
no  ordinary  man  in  head  or  heart,  printed  a  small  edition  of  his 
Poor  Man's  Sabbath  in  1804,  which  was  "  received  with  such  a 
degree  of  indulgent  partiality  as  to  induce  him  to  offer  a  new  edi 
tion  thereof"  in  1805.  In  1809,  Mr.  (afterwards  Professor) 
Duncan  of  Midcalder,  contributed  to  the  Christian  Magazine  two 
papers,  illustrating  with  much  ability  a  variety  of  positions  on 
the  subject,  and  after  some  time  there  followed  at  intervals  publi 
cations  by  Wemyss,  M'Beth  (two  editions),  Glen,  and  Parker. 
Of  a  sermon  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  the  late  Bishop  of  Calcutta  said, 
"It  is  in  the  most  powerful  and  awakening  manner  of  its  author, 
and  of  itself  settles  the  question."1  Two  very  able  and  erudite 
papers,  the  one  on  "The  Origin  of  New  Year's  Day  Rites" 
(Christian  Instructor,  Feb.  1829),  the  other  on  "The  Weekly 
Division  of  Time"  (Edinburgh  Theol.  Magazine,  Dec.  1829  and 
Jan.  1830),  did  great  honour  to  the  writer,  the  Eev.  Alex.  Nisbet, 
of  the  Secession  Church,  Portsburgh,  Edinburgh,  then  a  student  of 
divinity.2  Next  in  order  were  published  Letters,  etc.,  to  Dr. 
Robert  Hamilton,  combating  his  doctrines  of  an  abrogated  Sabbath 
and  Decalogue,  and  works  by  Forbes,  Gavin  Struthers,  M'Farlane, 
and  Burns  (Kilsyth).  In  1832,  Dr.  Wardlaw  gave  to  the  world 
Discourses,  than  which  no  work  has  more  logically  and  lucidly 
treated  the  theory,  or  more  impressively  enforced  the  duties  of  the 
institution.  This  volume  was  succeeded  in  the  same  year  by  an 
excellent  tract,  "  The  Christian  Sabbath  Vindicated,  by  William 
[afterwards  Dr.]  Innes,  minister  of  the  gospel."  Thoughts,  by 
Douglas  of  Cavers,  only  too  few ;  and  Dobie's  Law  of  Scotland 
relative  to  the  observance  of  the  day,  belong  to  1833.  Sermons 
by  White,  and  Tracts  by  James  Haldane  and  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  bring  us  to  1840,  when  there  was  issued 
what  is  said  in  the  title-page  to  be  the  seventh  edition  of  "  Mis 
taken  Views  regarding  the  Observance  of  the  Sabbath,  by  Alexander 
Marjoribanks  of  that  Ilk,"  who  seems  to  have  gained  for  himself 

1  Dr.  D.  Wilson's  Seven  Sermons,  Preface.  The  Sermon  referred  to,  On  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  appeared  in  1823.  Striking  and  valuable  though  it  is,  two  others,  not  less  so, 
followed  in  subsequent  editions  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  Sermons— the  one,  on  The  Christianity 
of  the  Sabbath,  the  other  on  The  Advantages  of  a  Fixed  Sabbath. 

•  Reprinted  in  the  author's  Remains  (1835),  edited  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor,  then  of 
Auehtermuchty. 


SCOTLAND.  167 

the  unenviable  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  earliest  Scottish 
writers  who  scoffingly  assailed  the  institution.  On  the  same  side, 
though  not  identical  in  spirit  or  views,  succeeded  the  lucubrations 
of  Anti-Sabbatos,  Taylor,  H.  C.  Wright,  Aytoun,  Russell,  two  or 
three  anonymous  pamphlets,  J.  N.  Paton,  and  Allan  Clark,  an 
elder  of  the  Church  ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  publications  by  Murray 
(Morton),  D.  T.  K.  Drummond,  M'Farlane,  Robert  Haldane  (two 
tracts),  Bruce,  Fairbairn,  and  Davidson,  in  1842  ;  Carson,  in 
1844;  Lorimer,  Bridges,  Thomson  (Leith),  Nixon,  Somerville, 
Thomson  (Dr.  A.),  and  James  M'Beth  in  1847. 

We  have  now  to  mention  two  efforts  on  a  large  scale  for  pro 
moting  right  views  and  practice  in  relation  to  the  Lord's  day — 
efforts  suggested  by  the  ingenious  benevolence,  and  sustained  by 
the  munificent  liberality  of  one  individual.  To  John  Henderson  of 
Park,  "  the  religious  world  is  indebted  for  the  origin  and  wide  cir 
culation"  of  "  the  tracts  on  the  Sabbath,"  which  were  published 
in  the  course  of  the  years  1847  and  1848,  and  of  which  in  a  col 
lected  form,  two  editions  have  appeared  under  the  title,  The  Chris 
tian  Sabbath.  This  work,  which  is  the  joint  production  of  seventeen 
ministers,  belonging  to  eight  denominations  of  Christians,  forms  a 
remarkably  complete  and  interesting  treatise  on  its  subject.  To 
the  same  person  we  owe  the  conception  and  accomplishment  of  a 
measure  which  is  without  parallel  in  any  department  of  literature. 
As  the  multiplication  of  railway  and  other  travelling  facilities  on 
the  Lord's  day,  was  defended  on  the  ground  of  its  benefit  to  work 
ing  men,  he  determined,  towards  the  close  of  1847,  to  appeal 
to  them  on  the  question,  and  offered  three  prizes  for  the  three 
best  essays  upon  The  Temporal  Advantages  of  the  Sabbath  to  the 
Labouring  Classes.  In  the  short  space  of  about  three  months, 
1045  essays  were  received.  The  adjudicators  awarded  the  first 
prize  to  John  A.  Quinton,  journeyman  printer,  Ipswich ;  the 
second,  to  John  Younger,  shoemaker,  St.  Boswell's  Green  ;  and 
the  third,  to  David  Farquhar,  machinist,  Dundee.  The  measure 
obtained  the  patronage  of  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert.  His 
Royal  Highness  contributed  five  additional  prizes.  The  British 
public  made  up  the  number  to  more  than  100.  The  publication 
of  the  first  three,  and  of  many  more  essays,  including  The  Pearl 
of  Days,  by  a  female,  which  was  not  admitted  into  the  competi 


168  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTKO  VERSIES. 

tion,  has  furnished  a  body  of  evidence,  fit  to  form  a  supplement 
to  the  mass  of  facts  collected  by  the  House  of  Commons'  Com 
mittee  in  1832.  The  work  of  composition  may  have  been  the 
means  of  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  to  one  thousand  and 
forty-five  minds.  And  the  dispersion  of  their  writings  in  great 
profusion  over  the  land,1  was  calculated  to  excite  inquiry,  reflec 
tion,  and  right  feeling  in  many  more.  But  with  regret  we  add, 
that  even  a  few  of  Scotland's  working  men  proved  false  to  the 
religion  which  had  elevated  their  country  and  their  class — false 
too,  at  a  time,  when  their  brethren  were  flooding  the  land  with 
testimonies  to  the  necessity  and  value  of  a  weekly  day  consecrated 
entirely  to  sacred  rest.  In  1849,  one  of  this  stamp  had  so  little 
of  the  spirit  of  a  Scotsman,  not  to  say  a  Christian,  as  to  put  forth 
his  Sabbath  versus  Sunday,  and  another  uttered  in  1852  a  sym 
pathizing  Voice  from  the  Workshop.  Happily,  however,  two  or 
even  ten  of  such  writers  bear  a  small  proportion  to  the  number  of 
friendly  essayists,  among  700  of  whom  there  were  225  resident, 
and  many  non-resident,  natives  of  Scotland.2 

The  singular  list  of  Scottish  Anti-Sabbatic  writers  is  closed  with 
a  copious  defence  of  the  Saturday  Sabbath,  by  James  A.  Begg  ; 
a  voluminous  publication  by  Robert  Cox  ;  the  novel  impiety  of  a 
Sunday  Steamer  vindicated  by  its  abettors  ;  Dr.  R  Hamilton's 
Reply  to  Professor  Miller  ;  a  lecture  by  John  Gordon  ;  and  The 
Whole  Doctrine  of  Calvin  about  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day, 
a  compilation  by  the  already  named  Mr.  Cox.  We  have  to  men 
tion,  on  the  other  hand,  as  upholding  the  doctrine  of  their 
country, — Laing,  in  1848  ;  the  author  of  The  Sabbath  at  Home 
and  Abroad,  Pyott  and  Crease,  who  both  write  in  poetic  strains, 
with  Rennison,  in  1849  ;  Lewis,  Hunter,  Dr.  Greville,  and  the 
author  of  An  Address  on  the  Evils  of  Sabbath  Labour,  in  1850  ; 
D.  C.  A.  Agnew  and  Oliver,  in  1851  ;  the  writer  of  The  Chris 
tians  Sabbath,  and  D.  Gorrie,  author  of  The  Sabbath,  a  Prize 
Poem,  in  1853  ;  Professor  Miller,  Stewart,  and  Catherine  Sin 
clair,  in  1854  ;  Pirret,  and  the  authors  of  The  Claims  of  the 
Sabbath,  in  1855  ;  M'Fie  and  Dr.  Candlish,  in  1856  ;  Colvin, 
in  1857 ;  J.  M.  Pollock,  the  writer  of  The  Love  of  God  in  ike 

*  To  the  number  of  609,750  copies. —Jordan  in  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom. 
(1832),  p.  132  2  Ibid.  p.  131. 


SCOTLAND.  169 

Sabbath,  and  Court  against  Langley,  in  1858  ;  and  M'Naughtan, 
in  1859. 

The  marked  contrast  between  the  two  classes  of  writers  who 
have  been  enumerated,  is  significant.  Those  of  them  who  have 
opposed  the  prevailing  views  of  the  institution  number  about 
twenty.  They  have  flourished  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury.  They  include  no  name  of  note.  And,  except  Begg  and 
Cox,  they  have  dogmatized  on  a  matter  which  they  been  at 
no  great  pains  to  understand.  It  is  otherwise  with  the  authors 
who  have  maintained  the  doctrine  of  a  Sabbath  substantially  the 
same  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  world.  They  are  up 
wards  of  a  hundred.  They  extend  over  a  period  of  about  three 
centuries.  They  are  for  the  most  part  known  to  have  been  quali 
fied  by  education,  character,  and  experience  to  write  on  the  sacred 
theme.  And  not  a  few  of  them  have  been  distinguished  by  their 
learning,  talents,  piety  and  beneficence,  as  Weemse,  Calderwood, 
Young,  Durham,  Leighton,  Brown,  Burnet,  Willison,  the  Haldanes, 
Duncan,  Chalmers,  Wardlaw, — not  to  name  others,  who  still  live 
among  us,  honoured  for  their  acquirements,  usefulness,  and  worth.1 

Similar  discussions  to  those  that  have  been  sketched  have  taken 
place  in  other  countries,  particularly  in  Germany  and  France. 
But  we  must  pass  them  over.  Dr.  Hengstenberg  has  traced  the 
German  controversies  on  the  subject,  though  we  must  say  with  a 
partial  pen. 

If  we  reflected  on  the  moral  condition  of  mankind,  the  dis 
cordant  views  which  have  been  held  in  every  department  of 
knowledge,  and  the  difficulty  of  arriving  at  certainty  in  many 
even  of  the  simplest  matters  of  fact,  it  would  not  surprise  us  that 
on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbath  there  should  have  existed  at  any 
time  a  variety  of  sentiment.  Nor  will  any  mind  that  is  sincere 
in  the  search  after  truth,  allow  a  circumstance,  common  to  so 
many  things,  to  prejudice  the  particular  one  now  under  con- 

1  Of  Scottish  publications  that  have  appeared  since  the  preceding  list  was  prepared 
for  our  first  edition,  we  add  for  1860,  "  A  Few  Observations  on  the  Sanctiflcation  of  the 
Sabbath,"  by  James  Young,  an  elder  of  the  U.P.  Church  ;  for  1861,  an  article  on  Dr. 
Hessey's  Bampton  Lecture  in  the  "  North  British  Review,"  No.  67,  and  "  The  Sabbath 
Viewed  in  the  Light  of  Reason,"  etc.,  by  the  writer  of  this  note  ;  and  for  1862,  "  Our 
Scottish  Sabbath,"  by  Dr.  A.  Thomson. 


170  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTEOVERSIES. 

sideration.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  magnitude  of  the  in 
terests  involved  in  the  disposal  of  so  large  a  portion  of  our 
limited  and  precious  time,  would  warrant  every  exertion  to  reach 
a  right  decision,  although  the  matter  were  much  more  difficult 
than  it  is — that  the  truth,  after  all,  may  be  easily  discovered  by 
the  honest  inquirer — and  that  while  the  theories  on  the  Sabbath, 
after  they  have  been  reduced  to  their  proper  categories,  and  esti 
mated  at  their  real  worth,  may  be  found  neither  so  numerous  nor 
so  formidable  as  at  first  sight  appeared,  there  has  perhaps  never 
been  a  topic  on  which  a  greater  number  of  the  wise  and  good 
have  been  agreed  than  the  divine  authority,  the  sanctity,  and  the 
value  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  and  prayer. 

These  theories  have  to  some  extent  been  set  forth  in  preceding 
pages.  But  it  is  desirable  that  the  most  important  of  them 
should  be  presented  in  a  compendious  form,  so  far  as  this  can  be 
done  in  a  case  in  which  so  many  writers,  more  or  less  agreed  in 
certain  views,  have  each  some  notion  of  his  own.  The  general 
points  in  dispute  concerning  the  institution  have  been  its  import 
ance — its  authority — its  date  and  duration — the  proportion  and 
distribution  of  its  time — the  rule  of  its  observance — and  the 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  enforced.  A  weekly  holy  day  is  re 
pudiated  by  some  because  they  hold  all  days  to  be  alike  common 
— by  others,  because  they  hold  all  days  to  be  alike  sacred.  The 
Sabbatarian  affirms,  that  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  is  the 
Divinely  authorized,  immutable  Sabbath  of  all  time,  while  the 
great  majority  of  Christians  maintain  that  "the  obligation  of  that 
day  ceased,  together  with  the  abrogation  of  [ceased  together  with] 
the  other  Jewish  rites  and  ceremonies,  at  the  death  of  Christ."1 
The  claims  of  a  weekly  rest  are  admitted  by  various  classes  as  a 
salutary  arrangement  of  the  State,  or  as  a  necessary  ordinance  of 
the  Church,  or  as  recommended  by  Jewish  institution  and  apostolic 
practice — or  aa  an  express  appointment  of  Heaven.  Of  those 
who  believe  in  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Lord's  day,  there  are 
several  classes.  One  class  consider  it  as  having  no  connexion 
with  a  Sabbath  in  Eden,  which  they  deny  to  have  had  any  exist 
ence,  or  with  the  Sabbath  of  Sinai,  which,  they  assert,  has  been 
abrogated.  A  second  class,  conceding  the  primitive  institution 

i  "fl/Wtentuie  Catechism  on  the  Third  [Fourth]  Commandment. 


SUMMARY  OF  OPINIONS.  171 

of  a  Sabbath,  view  neither  that  nor  the  Jewish  Sabbath — both, 
they  say,  having  passed  away  with  their  respective  economies — 
as  constituting  any  formal  reason  for  hallowing  the  Lord's  day, 
the  authority  and  sanctity  of  which,  however,  they  strenuously 
maintain.  And  a  third  class  plead,  that  the  first  day  of  the  week 
has,  by  the  ordination  of  Jesus  Christ,  succeeded  to  the  seventh 
day  Sabbath,  not  as  the  latter  was  applied  according  to  the  judi 
cial  and  ceremonial  laws  of  the  Jews,  but  as  it  was  appointed  for 
man  in  Paradise,  embodied  in  the  Decalogue,  and  regulated  by  the 
fourth  of  its  precepts.  A  variety  of  tenets,  too,  have  been  held 
with  respect  to  the  nature  of  the  Sabbath  law  in  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  some  regarding  it  as  a  ceremony  which  has  dis 
appeared  ;  others,  as  partly  ceremonial  and  temporary,  partly 
moral  and  enduring  ;  a  third  class  as  simply  positive  ;  a  fourth, 
as  not  positive  at  all,  but  throughout  natural,  moral,  and  un 
changeable  even  as  concerns  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  ;  and  a 
fifth,  as  natural,  moral,  and  positive,  or  moral-positive.  Some 
conceive  that  the  Lord's  day  ought  to  be  sacredly  observed 
throughout  all  its  hours,  admitting,  however,  exceptional  cases  of 
necessity  and  mercy ;  others,  that  its  demands  of  sacred  service 
are  satisfied  by  a  few  hours  spent  in  public  worship,  the  remain 
ing  time  being  available,  in  the  opinion  of  one  class,  for  such  em 
ployments  and  recreations  as  do  no  violence  to  outward  decency 
and  decorum,  but,  in  the  view  of  others,  for  everything  that  may  be 
lawfully  done  on  any  other  day.  A  difference  of  sentiment  on 
the  manner  in  which  the  institution  ought  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
State  has  existed,  but  has  excited  little  discussion — some  believ 
ing  that  the  Sabbath  is  a  matter  which  lies  beyond  the  sphere  of 
civil  enactments  ;  others  deeming  it  right  that  it  should  be  pro 
tected,  and  certain  outward  violations  of  its  requirements  should 
be  restrained  and  punished  by  the  magistrate,  either,  according 
to  one  opinion,  for  political  reasons,  or,  according  to  another,  be 
cause  Sabbath-breaking  is,  like  murder,  a  transgression  of  the 
Divine  law.  To  this  enumeration  of  theories  may  be  added  that 
which  interprets  the  days  of  God's  working  and  rest  at  the  crea 
tion  as  denoting,  not  common  days,  but  periods  of  long  duration, 
the  dogma  being  'employed  by  some  to  annihilate,  by  others,  to 
favour,  a  primal  and  perennial  day  of  rest. 


172  SKETCHES  OF  SABBATIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

That  a  weekly  day  of  entire  consecration  to  repose  from  secular 
labour,  and  to  the  immediate  service  of  God,  cases  of  necessity  and 
mercy  excepted,  was  at  the  creation  of  the  world  divinely  ap 
pointed  for  man,  was  promulgated  from  Sinai  in  the  Decalogue,  and, 
being  transferred  by  Jesus  Christ  from  the  end  to  the  beginning 
of  the  week,  was  by  Him  recognised  as  an  ordinance  of  the  Chris 
tian  dispensation,  and  as  still  under  the  rule  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment, — is  a  doctrine  which  it  is  the  object  of  this  volume  to 
uphold,  illustrate,  and  recommend.  And  in  endeavouring  to  ac 
complish  this  object,  it  is  our  purpose, — First,  to  adduce  proofs 
from  reason  and  experience  of  the  excellence,  value,  and  Divine 
origin  of  such  a  holy  day.  Second,  to  present  the  testimony  of 
revelation  to  its  Divine  authority,  its  divinely-prescribed  duties, 
and  its  divinely-estimated  importance.  Third,  to  exhibit  from 
history  evidence  corroborative  both  of  the  proofs  from  reason  and  of 
the  testimony  of  revelation  on  the  subject.  Fourth,  to  vindicate 
the  institution  against  opposing  theories,  schemes,  and  arguments  ; 
and  Fifth,  to  enforce  its  claims  against  practical  perversions  and 
neglect. 


PEOOFS  FEOM  EEASON  AND  EXPERIENCE  OF 

THE  EXCELLENCE  AND  DIVINE  OEIGIN 

OF  THE  SABBATH 


CHAPTEE  I. 

PHYSICAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS 
OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"  I  feel  as  if  God  had,  by  giving  the  Sabbath,  given  fifty-two  springs  in  the  year." 

COLERIDGE. 

"  I  am  prepared  to  affirm  that,  to  the  studious  especially,  and  whether  younger  or 
older,  a  Sabbath  well  spent — spent  in  happy  exercises  of  the  heart,  devotional  and 
domestic — a  Sunday  given  to  the  soul — is  the  best  of  all  means  of  refreshment  to  the 
aaere  intellect." — ISAAC  TAYLOR. 

THE  requisites  to  man's  physical  wellbeing  may  be  compre 
hended  under  food,  air,  exercise,  rest,  sleep,  cleanliness,  and  a 
cheerful  state  of  mind. 

Exercise  is  necessary,  not  only  in  many  cases  to  the  removal  of 
disease,  but  in  general  to  its  prevention,  and  to  the  continued 
soundness  and  vigour  of  the  entire  animal  system.  To  be  bene 
ficial,  however,  it  must  be  moderate.  Excess  here  is  as  fatal  as 
defect.  And  it  must  be  regular.  There  must  be  alternations  of 
exertion  and  repose,  the  latter,  particularly  in  the  form  of  sleep, 
being  needed  for  recruiting  the  nervous  energy  which  labour  has 
exhausted,  and  for  abating  the  activity  of  the  circulation  which 
would  else  acquire  a  rapidity  incompatible  with  life.  Man  ought 
to  go  forth  to  his  work  and  to  his  labour  until  the  evening,  per 
forming  with  regularity  and  without  oppression  his  daily  task  under 
the  eye  of  day.  Those  who  work  must  work  while  it  is  day. 
Ttiey  that  sleep,  sleep  in  the  night.  It  is  then  that  deep  sleep 


174  IDVANTAfiKS  OF  TIIK  HAIillATII. 

falleth  on   men.       N:il.iirc  il::elf,  in  it,;  \  id. .:.il  inks  of  day  ;nul  night, 
in:  hurl.;  u;;  when  to  labour  and  when  to  indulge  repo.,e. 

lint  in  addition  to  UK;  .sleep  and  refreshment  of  night,  there  is 
need,  from  time  to  time,  of  a  day  of  rest.  "Although  the  night 
apparently  equali/es  the  circulation,  yet  it  does  not  miiliciently 
restore  its  balance  for  the  Httuinmeut  of  a  long  life — hence  one 
day  in  seven,  by  the,  bounty  of  Providence,  is  thrown  in  as  a  day 
of  compen,  alion  to  perfect  by  its  repose  tin;  animal  system."  '  liy 
tin;  periodical  interpolation  of  a  day's  respite  from  labour,  a  check 
i.s  given  to  a  course  of  toil,  which  would  speedily  destroy  the  work 
man,  or,  in  other  words,  an  opportunity  in  afforded  for  the  n •..(. 
\vhich  physiologist.-;  and  physicians  judge  necessary  fora  season  in 
many  cases  of  <lisea.se,  and  recommend  to  be  nought,  at  stated  in 
tervals,  l>y  all  who  would  livo  long  and  see  happy  days.  They 
tell  us  that  the  animal  frame,  whether  in  mail  or  liea.st,  can  HIW- 
taiu  only  a  certain  amount  of  continuous  exertion,  and  that  th« 
transgression  of  this  limit,  if  pei;,i,,ted  in,  inn  .1,  at  no  distant 
period,  impair  the  conr.t itution.  "i  believe,"  says  Dr.  Carpenter, 
"  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  those  who  work  many  horses  in  coach- 
in".,  etc.,  that  it  is  better  to  work  a  horso  (say  ten  miles  a  day) 
for  four  days,  and  to  give  him  an  entire  rest  on  the  lifih,  than  (<> 
work  him  eight  miles  a  day  for  the  whole  five."2  In  tho  case  of 
human  bein-  ,  the  earlier  decay,  the  moiu  prevalent  diseases,  and 
the  briefer  averages  life  of  working  men  than  of  the  upper  and 
middle  cla,;ses  of  society,  together  with  the  uniform  proportion 
which  lhe.se  e\  ils  bear  to  (he  amount  of  unremitting  toil,  confirm 
the  conclusions  of  science.  Taking  the  whole  of  the  IVench 
population,  human  lite,  according  to  the  estimate  of  M.  Villerne, 
i.s  protracted  twelve  and  one  half  years  among  tho  wealthy  be 
yond  its  duration  among  tin:  poor.  In  England,  too,  the  difference 
is  greatly  in  favour  of  the  former  claws,  as  appears  from  the 
Keport  of  tho  Toor  Law  Commissioners  for  1  84  U,  where  thirteen 
are  adduced,  showing  the  average  liu-  of  three  classes  to  bu 
as  follows  : — 

(liMiUi-innii.  Tniil.Min.-.u.       Working  1'upulution. 

Town -PJ  !'M  '21 

Country,     ...  50  -I -I  155 

»  Dr.  Farm  in  ICvhlon.-r  l^l,...-   i  t '..immUro  <>f  II,  us«  of  ;.Vmmoin  (1833),  JX.  Ill, 
•  letter  to  Mr.  Ur<iin;.vr,  "  •"  ''  '   ''  /  .'-/u.'M  t»t  (fir.  ^Mxit\,  \>    !.3. 


I'llYM-'Al.   ItKI.ATlDNH. 

Tlinl  :i  proportion  of  IIK.I  l:ili! y  10  r.'id  fur  I  In-  \\.-iKniv. 
!  ..-.-.  M  lo  a  variety  of  nmmi,  in  not  In  In-  denied.  I'.ivi-il.y, 
iliipliTO  nil',  Want  of  e.loanlilH'MM,  :ind  vir.iotlH  mduI'M'iirc,  eoiil  i  ilmln 
r.ieh  it;;  ;,lciic  of  injury.  l;nl.  when  uc  eoni.ider  licit,  unduly 

protrarfed     IllllOliT     Opr|,il>  •;      ailll      !1.     I,  Wofold      fold-,      I.....I,    MM"       |.he;.c 

V<iry  evil, i  :i:i  well  :i.!1.  diivrlly  d  i  l.i|  >n  lul  ui".  I  In-  ,'.!  i  di"  i  li  of  ||.| 
\i-liiini,  wo  limy  \\rll  ri'f/unl  il.  MM  <i  priiu-ipiil  riuiwi  i»f  l.ln-ir 
|,|i\.  ir-;i|  <lclciioi.-il.ioii.  "  My  own  opinion,"  WI'iU'M  l>r.  ( '.-irpciilrr, 
"  li.i  l"ii"  lici -ii  \iry  olcc.iilcd,  lii.il.  ten  liottrn  a  dny  i..  NIC  lull.-.  I 
nnioiinl.  licit,  oiiidil.  lo  lie  .1,  i  MI.  .i  l.o  conl  inncd  hoilily  Inlioiir,  find 
U'llOFO  tln-ic  i.i  inn.  h  Micnl.d  l.riwion,  |  r.lioiilil  !,:iy  I  led.  even  I  In:: 

r;  loo   nm.-li  "      Mr.    drainer,    who   pnl>li..ln-.   tin     opn i,   :md 

.'illiini:.  il.   lo   lie  conciii  ic<l    in    hy    I  lie    ln'dic.:!,  inrdicn.1    and  HcirtitiDn 

nuMinril.icH  in   MUM   country,    atul   c(»nlinned    l.y    Imt    own    olllrial 

in<|iiiiie,l  ill  Hie  iii;iiiiii.irl  ill  in  •  d  nil  i  id  •'.,  :id<l::,  "  If  Iliiil.  liniil.  I  »c 
i  i  i -"'dcd,  NIC  jirnalfy  llllll'.l.  Im  ji. nil  in  null' •<•<•.  .11  \  n!.m  in 

pi<-in;d,uro    dcicay    of   tlio   MyMlcin,   or,    HM   roiiHianMy    lni|>|><  n .-.,    m 

piein.-il.lirr  denlll."  '         l,e|,    I  |i<-     lilnilie   of    lln.c    n.ull   :    | ..-   <  1 1  n  1 1 .1 1 ,1  y 

<h  1 1  ilml.cil   .-unonjif  thoM«  who,  to  ^iiin  tlinir  own  cuidn,  unwl  l\j 

MllC.rilicr,   l.lir,     inl.eic;',llt    of    Ilieir   inleiioiii,    n.lld     1, 1 1  OHO   who,    \vil.li    :.lill 

inoni  KluriiiK  folly,  allow  lln-ni; .«  l\  •  ,  \>\  VJIMI  ;md  Ihc  n<-;de<-|.  of 
Huljlilltir.  ri^lll-M,  lo  !»«>  redn.-ed  lo  I'.lnvny. 

Tliei.-  i  -:  nnolhei  kind  "I  l.d.<,ui  licit,  of  II..-  tnind  ulmli 
inoie  lipeedily  Jt.lld  pOWri'l'ltlly  llcin  Middy  :iniin:d  exertion  iilfc-i'l.M 
the  pliy,(ir:d  r<in<lifloii,  in:i..nnn-li  prolilllily  HH  itralln  in  I  o  :i.-|  ion 
Hi'-  cnl. in-  .•,.!<  111  by  MM  .ui,.  of  Hie  l.i.-iin,  :nid  il  .  nhn|iiil  oil:1. 
IUTVOUH  (!JUM'^y.  'J'lic  modi -i:ile  :md  IC<MI|;H  <  xcici.ieol'  Mm  Mirntul 
f;ienl|  Jen  mid  Irclill^H  JM  CVen  condl  tion;d  lo  the  po;;;'.e;(..|o||  of  Hie, 
hijdieal,  liodily  henlth,  whde  filfid  and  ;iindei:.,  einployinenf  of  l.lm 
mind,  or  inee.  i;;inl,  nnxioiiM  I  lion;-!)!,  on  any  ono  r.ul»jec,|,  induceit 
idioey,  or  in/iaiiify,  and  (loath  :— 

"    I'.lll,    'lif!    ||., I.    |||.,II»|||.    (for    Hill    III",    linlll'l!    <-MI|,|i. •,.••!), 

"Tin  |iii.infiil  l.liinl.Mi".  licit.  -  r.rnxhiM  0111  •  I  < 

No  (rl;i!-:i-;  of  inen  r.njoy  liefler  lirnll.li,  or  nllnin  MIOIC  ye.-n:;,  l.li;ni 
tllOHO  of  <-.dni  f.fndion:;  h.i.l.il.;  I'II.OM..,  on  the  other  Inilld,  who 
overt;.;, I  Mu:i  iM'-nli.l  powui'.,  me  pi. -inal.inely  ;.;..  i  ilir.eil  to  Uii-ir 

<    |,iillri   I.,  Mi    OiUlliK'  i,   "  ""/"  ••/'  /'•''"  '  ''  (//'.  I' 


176  ADVANTAGES  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

ardour  or  ambition.  Few  students  are  ignorant  of  the  relief 
which  some  change,  say  a  walk,  the  call  of  a  friend,  or  a  fresh 
topic  of  investigation,  yields  to  the  heated  brain.  Weber  was 
aware  of  the  effect  and  danger  of  intense  uninterrupted  thought, 
when  he  explained,  "  Would  that  I  were  a  tailor,  for  then  I 
should  have  a  Sunday  holiday  ! "  By  spending  his  evenings  in 
soothing  conversation  with  a  friend  after  his  daily  labours  on  his 
great  work,  the  Synopsis,  Poole  showed  that  he  knew  both  his 
danger  and  the  remedy.1  Nor  was  the  eminent  Dr.  Hope,  of 
London,  less  considerate  in  dismissing  every  evening  at  eight 
o'clock  all  interest  about  his  patients,  a  practice  to  which  he  was 
wont  to  attribute  his  long-continued  life  and  health.  "  I  do  not 
think,"  says  Dr.  Carpenter,  "  that  more  than  eight  hours  a  day 
can  be  given  to  purely  mental  labour."2 

Cleanliness  has  so  close  an  affinity  to  morals  as  to  have  been 
classed  among  the  virtues.  It  has,  also,  an  intimate  connexion 
with  health,  both  as  contributing  to  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere 
which  we  inhale,  and  as  promoting  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
particularly  over  that  membrane,  the  skin,  which  performs  so 
important  a  part  in  the  complex  and  delicate  economy  of  life.  It 
was  no  arbitrary  law  which  required  of  the  Jews  frequent  ablu 
tions.  It  was  one  founded  in  the  necessities  of  men,  particularly  in 
eastern  countries,  and  calculated  to  have,  morally  and  physically,  a 
salutary  influence  on  its  subjects.  It  were  easy  to  prove  that  a 
weekly  holiday  tends  to  foster  habits  of  cleanliness.  Let  it  be 
sufficient  to  refer  to  the  appearance  of  church-going  people  in 
Scotland  or  England,  as  contrasted  with  the  following  state  of 
things  in  France  after  its  first  Revolution  :  "The  moroseness 
occasioned  by  the  want  of  a  Sabbath  in  France,  has  an  effect  on 
the  cleanliness  of  young  men  engaged  in  manual  labour ;  they 
pursue  their  daily  drudgery  in  their  dirty  working  dresses,  and 
habit  renders  them  at  length  averse  to  a  change  of  linen  and 
clothes."3 

A  cheerful  mind  is  held  by  physiologists  and  medical  men  to 
be  one  of  the  causes  of  health.  For  want  of  this  all  means  fail ; 

1  Rose's  Ittngraph.  Diet.  Article  "Poole."  2  Woolwich  Lectures,  p.  53. 

*  Jorgenson  in  his  Travels  through  France,  quottxl  Edinlntrgh  Revieio,  voL  xxvllL 
p.  382. 


PHYSICAL  RELATIONS.  177 

but  by  its  aid  the  full  benefit  of  exercise,  air,  food,  and  medicine 
is  secured.  One  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  the  influ 
ence  exerted  by  the  state  of  the  mind  on  the  bodily  health  is 
afforded  by  the  fact,  that  the  proportion  of  sick  in  an  army  is 
least  after  a  victory,  greater  when  it  is  quartered  in  a  garrison 
during  peace,  increased  in  a  campaign,  and  highest  in  the  event 
of  a  defeat,  although  the  circumstances  otherwise  be  not  unfavour 
able.1  Rest  itself,  while  not  the  only  boon  of  a  Sabbath,  is  one 
of  its  salutary  provisions.  Many  who  are  utterly  regardless  of 
any  Divine  claim  to  a  portion  of  their  time  are  yet  willing  enough 
to  have  a  day  of  leisure.  The  call  for  variety  and  repose  is  the 
voice  of  their  nature.  To  that  call  the  recurring  day  of  rest  is  a 
gratifying  response.  They  feel  that  the  prospect  of  a  period  of 
vacation  lightens  and  animates  work,  and  that  a  change  braces 
them  for  fresh  efforts.  Thus  they  go  on  hopefully  and  happily 
with  their  weekly  task.  Now,  as  labour  to  be  favourable  to  health 
must  be  prosecuted  voluntarily  and  with  pleasure,  it  is  impossible 
to  calculate  the  sanitary  advantage  of  a  Sabbath-day  to  the  many 
children  of  toil. 

But  there  are  other  modes  in  which,  by  means  of  the  pleasure 
it  brings,  the  institution  produces  salutary  effects.  Its  required 
subjects  of  thought  are  great,  pure,  and  of  surpassing  interest ; 
and  its  services  combine,  in  a  manner  and  degree  peculiar  to  them 
selves,  the  means  of  mental  elevation  and  social  good,  with  those 
of  rational  and  unalloyed  delight.  It  is  mainly  thus  that  the 
Sabbath  is  promotive  of  a  healthful  cheerfulness  of  mind.  Its 
engagements  have  a  power  of  their  own  to  turn  back  the  current 
of  anxious  thought  and  distracting  care,  and  to  beguile  the  toils 
of  the  succeeding  week. 

Here,  then,  in  the  noblest  sense,  are  "  the  intellectual,  moral, 
and  sympathetic  enjoyments,"  which  physiologists  assure  us  are 
conducive  to  health,  and  which  warrant  the  application  to  the 
conscientious  Sabbath-keeper  of  these  words,  from  the  pen  of  Dr. 
South  wood  Smith  .  u  Enjoyment  is  the  only  condition  of  life 
which  is  compatible  with  a  protracted  term  of  existence.  The 
happier  a  human  being  is,  the  longer  he  lives  ;  the  more  he  suf 
fers,  the  sooner  he  dies  ;  to  add  to  enjoyment  is  to  lengthen  life  ; 

1  Chamhers's  Information  for  tlie  People,  vol.  i.  p.  670. 

H 


178  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

to  inflict  pain  is  to  shorten  the  duration  of  existence."1  It  is 
allowed  that  to  receive  and  give  instruction  relative  to  the  Crea 
tor,  Preserver,  and  Saviour  of  mankind  ;  to  disburden  the  mind 
of  its  cares  by  supplication  to  the  Father  of  Mercies  ;  to  utter 
and  hear  "  the  songs  and  cheerful  sounds"  of  praise  ;  to  read, 
think,  and  converse  about  the  glories  of  nature,  redemption,  and 
immortality,  and  to  do  good  to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  their 
fellow-creatures,  are  to  some  professed  friends  of  the  Sabbath 
unpleasant  occupations,  and  are  conceived  by  its  adversaries  to 
induce  in  all  who  engage  in  them  a  gloominess  such  as  they  them 
selves,  if  so  employed,  would  feel  j  but  the  duties  enumerated 
have  in  their  own  nature  no  such  tendency,  as,  if  we  believe  the 
testimony  of  the  most  truthful  of  men,  confirmed  by  all  the  out 
ward  tokens  of  happiness,  they  most  certainly  in  their  own  experi 
ence  have  no  such  result.  Wilberforce  was  not  a  less  joyous  man 
than  any  of  those  contemporary  statesmen  who  kept  no  Sabbath, 
nor  would  an  actuary  have  regarded  theirs  as  "better  lives." 
And  are  our  labouring  men,  who  spend  the  seventh  day  in  their 
ordinary  work,  or  in  idleness  and  amusement,  really  happier 
beings  than  their  fellows  who  devote  it  to  sacred  use  1  We  may 
with  perfect  confidence  reply,  the  very  reverse. 

It  thus  appears  that  an  occasional  season  of  rest  beyond  that  of 
night  is  of  advantage  to  our  physical  nature,  adjusting  the  mea 
sure  of  labour  to  the  labourer's  strength,  and  lightening  its  pressure 
by  inspiring  cheerfulness  and  hope,  and  that  to  this  extent  the 
Sabbath,  while  it  makes  provision  for  the  inferior  animals  accord 
ing  to  their  more  limited  wants,  is  adapted  to  the  necessities  and 
to  the  wellbeing  of  man. 

But  why  a  whole  day  1  and  why  a  seventh  day  1  To  these 
important  questions  we  proceed  to  offer  some  reply.  The  crav 
ings  of  nature  for  periods  of  rest  may,  as  regards  the  proportion 
of  time  that  would  be  satisfying  and  beneficial,  be  considerably 
vague.  Experience,  however,  soon  convinces  the  individual  that 
such  seasons  must  be  frequent  and  regular.  Those  who  are 
habitually  occupied  in  hard  work  would  in  general  prefer  for  re 
laxation  a  whole  day,  though  more  rarely  recurring,  to  portions  of 
days  at  short  intervals.  It  is  well  known  to  be  a  practice  for 

i  Philosophy  of  Health,  voL  i.  p.  101. 


PHYSICAL  RELATIONS.  179 

artisans  to  labour  some  additional  time  each  day  that  they  may 
enjoy  more  leisure  at  the  close  of  the  week.  Such  persons,  if  in 
any  degree  observant,  discover  that  a  periodical  day  of  rest  tends 
to  promote  their  comfort  and  health,  provided  they  avoid  those 
excesses  of  indulgence,  and  even  of  idleness,  which  frustrate  the 
best  provisions  for  human  happiness.  From  whatever  causes 
arising,  certain  it  is  that  the  seventh  day  was  among  ancient 
nations,  and  is  in  many  countries  still,  observed  as  a  season  of 
abstinence  from  the  ordinary  business  of  life.  Recent  observa 
tions  and  experiments,  moreover,  have  fully  demonstrated  that 
such  is  the  allowance  of  time  which  man  and  even  his  beast  of 
burden  require  for  rest  in  order  to  the  ease  and  safety  of  customary 
labour.  Let  us  adduce  evidence  for  the  truth  of  this  position. 

We  are  not  aware  that  much  attention  has  been  given  to  this 
subject  by  our  eminent  writers  on  Physiology  and  Health.  Dr. 
Carpenter,  indeed — and  he  is  himself  a  host — writing  to  a  friend 
in  1852,  said,  "My  own  experience  is  very  strong  as  to  the  im 
portance  of  the  complete  rest  and  change  of  thought  once  in  the 
week."1  But  the  matter  has  come  under  the  consideration  of  not 
a  few  scientific  as  well  as  practical  men,  whose  testimony  with 
respect  to  it  is  entitled  to  credit,  and  appears  to  be  decisive. 

The  evidence  of  J.  R.  Farre,  M.D.,  on  the  point,  has  obtained 
considerable  currency  and  fame.  "  All  men,  of  whatever  class," 
he  says,  "  who  must  necessarily  be  occupied  six  days  in  the  week, 
should  abstain  on  the  seventh,  and  in  the  course  of  life  would 
assuredly  gain  by  giving  to  their  bodies  the  repose,  and  to  their 
minds  the  change  of  ideas,  suited  to  the  day,  for  which  it  was 
appointed  by  unerring  wisdom.  I  have  frequently  observed  the 
premature  death  of  medical  men  from  continued  exertion.  I  have 
advised  the  clergyman,  in  lieu  of  his  Sabbath,  to  rest  one  day  in 
the  week  :  it  forms  a  continual  prescription  of  mine.  I  have 
seen  many  destroyed  by  their  duties  on  that  day,  and  to  preserve 
others,  I  have  frequently  suspended  them  for  a  season  from  the 
discharge  of  those  duties.  The  working  of  the  mind  in  one  con 
tinued  train  of  thought  is  destructive  of  life  in  the  most  .distin 
guished  class  of  society,  and  senators  themselves  stand  in  need  of 
reform  in  that  particular.  I  have  observed  many  of  them  de- 

1  Woolwich  Lectures  on  the  Sabbath,  p.  53. 


ISO  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

stroyed  by  neglecting  this  economy  of  life."1  This  testimony, 
important  as  that  of  an  able  and  experienced  physician,  derives 
additional  weight  from  the  medical  authorities  in  this  country  and 
in  America,  who  have  expressed  their  emphatic  concurrence  in  its 
terms,  or  given  forth  a  corresponding  opinion.  No  fewer  than 
six  hundred  and  forty-one  medical  men  of  London,  including  Dr. 
Farre,  subscribed  a  petition  to  Parliament  against  the  opening  of 
the  Crystal  Palace  for  profit  on  Sundays,  containing  the  following 
sentence — "Your  petitioners,  from  their  acquaintance  with  the 
labouring  classes,  and  with  the  laws  which  regulate  the  human 
economy,  are  convinced  that  a  seventh  day  of  rest,  instituted  by 
God,  and  coeval  with  the  existence  of  man,  is  essential  to  the 
bodily  health  and  mental  vigour  of  men  in  every  station  of  life."2 
Many  medical  men  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic — of  whom 
we  name  only  Drs.  Warren  of  Boston,  Smith  of  New  York,  Har 
rison  and  Mussey  of  the  Ohio  Medical  College,  and  Alden  of  Mas 
sachusetts — are  equally  decided  in  entertaining  the  same  views. 
We  must  content  ourselves  with  the  striking  words  of  Dr.  Mussey, 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  above-mentioned  institution,  who  af 
firms  that  "  under  the  due  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  life  would, 
on  the  average,  be  prolonged  more  than  one  seventh  of  its  whole 
period  ;  that  is,  more  than  seven  years  in  fifty."3 

From  medical  authority  let  us  turn  to  the  views  held  by  persons 
who,  as  masters  and  employers  of  workmen,  or  as  otherwise  having 
excellent  opportunities  of  observing  the  condition  of  the  laborious 
members  of  society,  are  competent  witnesses  in  the  cause.  Dr. 
Humphrey  mentions  a  case  which  has  often  been  cited.  "  A  con 
tractor  went  on  to  the  west,  with  his  hired  men  and  teams,  to 
make  a  turnpike  road.  At  first  he  paid  no  regard  to  the  Sabbath, 
but  continued  his  work  as  on  other  days.  He  soon  found,  how 
ever,  that  the  ordinances  of  nature,  no  less  than  the  moral  law, 
were  against  him.  His  labourers  became  sickly  ;  his  teams  grew 
poor  and  feeble  ;  and  he  was  fully  convinced  that  more  was  lost 
than  gained  by  working  on  the  Lord's  day.  So  true  it  is,  that 

*  Report  on  the  Observance  of  the  Sabbath-day  from  Select  Committee  of  He  use  of 
Commons,  etc.  (1832),  p.  119. 
2  Association  Medical  Journal,  June  1853,  p.  554. 
»  Permanent  Sabbath  Documents  (Boston,  U.S.,  J844),  No.  1,  p.  80. 


PHYSICAL  EELATION3.  181 

the  Sabbath-day  labourer,  like  the  glutton  aud  the  drunkard,  under 
mines  his  health,  and  prematurely  hastens  the  infirmities  of  age 
and  his  exit  from  this  world."1  Let  another  out  of  many  simi 
lar  instances  suffice.  Two  thousand  men  "were  employed  for 
years,  seven  days  in  a  week.  To  render  them  contented  in  giving 
up  their  right  to  the  Sabbatn  as  a  day  of  rest,  that  birthright  of 
the  human  family,  they  paid  them  double  wages  on  that  day,  eight 
days'  wages  for  seven  days'  work.  But  they  could  not  keep  them 
healthy,  nor  make  them  moral.  Things  went  badly,  and  they 
changed  their  course — employed  the  workmen  only  six  days  in  a 
week,  and  allowed  them  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath.  The  consequence 
was,  that  they  did  more  work  than  ever  before.  This,  the  super 
intendent  said,  was  owing  to  two  causes — the  demoralization  of 
the  people  under  the  first  system,  and  their  exhaustion  of  bodily 
strength,  which  was  visible  to  the  most  casual  observer."2  When 
we  advert  to  exertions  of  another  description,  we  find  that  tht; 
result  of  everyday  work  is  the  same.  It  was  remarked  by  the 
celebrated  painter,  Sir  David  Wilkie,  that  "those  artists  who 
wrought  on  Sunday  were  soon  disqualified  from  working  at  all."-1 
The  editor  of  the  Standard  some  years  ago  recorded  the  result  of 
many  years'  observation  in  these  words — "  We  never  knew  a  maj> 
work  seven  days  a  week,  who  did  not  kill  himself  or  kill  hit 
mind."  And  Wilberforce  said  that  he  could  name  several  of  his 
contemporaries  in  the  vortex  of  political  cares  whose  minds  had 
actually  given  way  under  the  stress  of  intellectual  labour,  so  as  to 
bring  on  a  premature  death.4 

There  is  a  third  class  who,  from  their  experience  of  hard  labour, 
either  of  mind  or  of  body,  are  entitled  to  be  listened  to  on  this 
question.  Manual  labourers  will  be  found  nearly  unanimous  in 
the  conviction  that  continuous  toil  is  destructive  to  health  ;  and 
we  have  seen  upwards  of  one  thousand  of  them  publishing  to  the 
world  their  persuasion  that  a  weekly  day  of  exemption  from  toil, 
and  yet  spent  not  in  total  inaction  or  amusement,  but  in  the  duties 
of  piety  and  benevolence,  is  indispensable  to  their  physical  welfare, 

1  Essay  on  the  Sabbath  (Lond.  1830),  p.  60. 

2  Permanent  Sabbath  Documents,  No.  1,  p.  33. 
8  The  Sabbath  at  Home  and  Abroad,  p.  47. 

«  Venn  in  Scott's  Discourse  on  Wilberjorce,  p.  32,  note. 

9 


182  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

and  even  to  the  preservation  of  life.  One  of  them  remarks,  that 
"  on  more  than  ene  occasion  he  has  found  that  continued  applica 
tion  to  labour  during  six  days  in  the  busy  season,  and  consequent 
long  hours,  was  more  than  his  constitution  would  bear,  and  that 
if  he  had  attempted  to  dispense  with  the  relaxation  of  the  Sabbath, 
he  should  long  since,  he  firmly  believed,  have  retired  to  the  rest 
and  silence  of  the  grave."1  Another  says,  "  Many  a  man  would 
tell  us  that  he  could  not  support  himself  under  his  arduous  toils, 
were  it  not  for  the  periodical  return  of  the  Lord's  day."2  When 
persons  who  have  attempted  to  work  on  the  seventh,  as  on  the 
other  days  of  the  week,  have  been  compelled  to  resort  to  its  rest, 
the  evidence  is  even  strengthened.  A  party  of  gold-diggers  in 
California  made  trial  of  the  former  practice.  The  result  is  thus 
stated  by  Dr.  Brooks,  one  of  their  number  : — "  After  dinner  we 
determined  to  rest  till  the  next  day.  The  fact  is,  that  the  human 
frame  will  not  stand,  and  was  never  intended  to  stand,  a  course  of 
incessant  toil ;  indeed,  I  believe  that  in  civilized,  that  is  to  say,  in 
industrious  communities,  the  Sabbath  bringing  round  as  it  does  a 
stated  remission  from  labour,  is  an  institution  physically  necessary. 
We  have  all  of  us  given  over  working  on  Sundays,  as  we  found  the 
toil  on  six  successive  days  quite  hard  enough."3  The  French,  it 
is  well  known,  had  sufficient  experience  of  both  a  seventh  and  a 
tenth  day's  rest ;  and  that  the  change  from  the  former  to  the  lat 
ter  had  been,  in  respect  of  sanitary  interests,  found  wanting,  formed 
one  of  the  reasons  of  their  return  to  their  ancient  practice.  Akin 
to  the  testimony  just  presented  is  that  of  persons  who  have  been 
engaged  in  the  more  exhausting  labours  of  the  mind.  A  distin 
guished  financier  charged  with  an  immense  amount  of  property 
during  the  great  pecuniary  pressure  of  1836  and  1837,  said,  I 
should  have  been  a  dead  man  had  it  not  been  for  the  Sabbath.4 
Similar  was  the  experience  of  Wilberforce  in  another  department 
of  mental  exertion.  "  I  have  often  heard  him  assert,"  observes 
the  Rev.  John  Venn,  "  that  he  never  could  have  sustained  the 
labour  and  stretch  of  mind  required  in  his  early  political  life,  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath.  "5  pr.  Farre,  who  has 

1  Prize  Essays  by  Five  Working  Men,  p.  174.  2  j&^  p.  45. 

8  Four  Months  among  the  Gold-finders  in  Alta  California,  pp  5S-60,  82. 

*  Permanent  Sabbath  Documents,  No.  1,  pp.  27,  28. 

•  Venn,  in  Scott's  Discourse  on  Wilberforce,  p.  32,  note. 


PHYSICAL  RELATIONS.  183 

afforded  its  the  benefit  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  human  frame, 
may  again  be  called  to  attest  the  influence  of  professional  toils 
which  may  be  considered  as  both  mental  and  bodily.  "  I  have 
found  it  essential  to  my  own  wellbeing,"  he  says,  "  to  abridge 
my  labours  on  the  Sabbath  to  what  is  actually  necessary." 

A  very  interesting  department  of  our  subject  respects  the 
benefit  accruing  from  a  weekly  day  of  rest  to  certain  of  the  lower 
animals.  These  creatures  have  in  common  with  man  physical 
natures,  which  are  worn  down  by  excessive  labour  and  recruited 
by  rest.  They  are  observed  to  be  amenable  to  laws  of  health 
and  disease  no  less  unerring,  and  in  some  instances  even  more 
appreciable,  than  those  which  apply  to  their  masters.  And  it  is 
found  that  such  of  them  as  are  employed  in  our  service  require 
equally  as  we  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day.  The  statement  made 
before  a  statistical  society  by  Mr.  Bianconi  of  Clonmel  in  Ireland, 
proprietor  at  the  time  of  one  hundred  and  ten  vehicles  which 
travelled  from  eight  to  ten  miles  an  hour,  is  well  known.  He 
mentioned  that  none  of  the  cars,  except  those  connected  with  the 
mail,  were  run  on  Sunday ;  that  he  found  it  much  easier  to  work 
a  horse  eight  miles  every  week-day,  in  place  of  six  miles,  than  an 
additional  six  miles  on  Sundays ;  and  that  by  this  plan  there  is 
a  saving  of  thirteen  per  cent.,  adding,  I  am  persuaded,  that  man 
cannot  be  wiser  than  his  Maker.1  Intelligent  coach-proprietors 
have  confirmed  the  views  of  Bianconi.2  And  an  American  writer, 
after  adducing  some  interesting  facts  in  proof  of  the  necessity  of 
the  Sabbath's  rest  to  man  and  beast,  proceeds  to  say,  "  Great 
numbers  have  made  similar  experiments  and  uniformly  with  simi 
lar  results  ;  so  that  it  is  now  settled  by  facts,  that  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  is  required  by  a  natural  law,  and  that  were  man  no 
thing  more  than  an  animal,  and  were  his  existence  to  be  confined  to 
this  world,  it  would  be  for  his  interest  to  observe  the  Sabbath."3 

That  the  Sabbatic  institution  is  eminently  calculated  to  pro 
mote  the  intellectual  improvement  of  mankind,  will  appear  from 
two  considerations. 

1  See  Life  of  Sir  A.  Agnew,  p.  £9. 

2  Report  on  the  Observance  of  the  Sabbath-day  from  Select  Committee  of  House  of 
Commons,  etc.  (1832),  pp.  126, 127,  130. 

'  Permanent  Documents,  No.  1,  pp.  40,  41. 


184  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

First,  it  affords  regularly  the  opportunity  and  facilities  for 
desisting  from  pursuits  which,  if  not  so  interrupted,  are  fatal  «o 
mental  cultivation,  and  a  season  for  employing  the  means  of  im 
proving  the  mind,  which,  without  such  an  institution,  could  not 
be  provided. 

Let  us  look  at  this  consideration,  in  the  first  instance,  as  ap 
plying  to  persons  whose  occupations  are  of  an  intellectual  rather 
than  of  a  physical  nature,  men  of  science  and  literature,  states 
men,  financiers,  merchants,  and  others.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  exertion  of  thought  on  any  subject,  if  prolonged  beyond  a  cer 
tain  time,  is  detrimental  to  both  body  and  mind.  Health  fails, 
and  nothing  is  more  unfavourable  to  mental  vigour  than  physical 
exhaustion.  The  views  become  clouded  ;  the  power  of  attention 
is  impaired  ;  and  the  result  of  persistence  in  such  a  course  must, 
as  already  remarked,  be  idiocy,  insanity,  or  death.  What  would 
have  prevented  these  evils  1  Nothing  but  a  discontinuance  of  the 
customary  mental  exertion.  It  is  not  the  activity  of  the  intellect, 
but  its  activity  as  put  forth  in  one  uniform  mode,  that  does  the 
injury.  The  cure,  or  the  preventive,  as  the  case  may  be,  must  be 
sought  for,  not  in  total  rest,  which  is  not  necessary,  and  is  indeed, 
from  the  nature  of  spirit,  impossible,  but  in  variety  of  exercise. 
There  must  be,  in  fact,  a  regularly  recurring  day  on  which  the 
current  of  thought  shall  flow  in  a  new  channel — a  day  neither  too 
frequent  nor  too  rare  in  its  return.  And  it  must  be  prescribed, 
not  by  physicians,  or  by  any  human  law  merely,  but  by  an  indis 
putable,  over-awing  authority,  as  well  as  be  connected  with  en 
gagements  and  sanctions  fitted  to  absorb  in  themselves,  and 
neutralize  the  most  powerful  attractions  and  propensities  that 
bind  men  to  their  ordinary  pursuits. 

Let  us  next  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  case  of  the  far  greater 
number  who  subsist  by  the  work  of  their  hands.  To  them  a 
Sabbath  is  no  less  necessary,  intellectually,  than  to  the  other 
class.  Were  there  BO  such  day,  the  continual  drudgery  to  which 
they  should  be  consigned  would  preclude  every  means  of  mental 
culture.  Working  men  there  must  be  ;  and  it  is  manifest  that  if 
their  toils  were  interrupted  only  by  night  and  an  occasional  holi 
day,  there  could  be  no  disposition,  motive,  or  even  time,  for 
acquiring  knowledge  and  otherwise  improving  their  minds.  While 


INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS.  185 

the  every-day  labour  in  many  trades  ought  to  be  lessened,  there 
must,  moreover,  be  periodical  seasons,  and  these  at  no  great  in 
tervals,  which  the  labourer  can  count  upon  and  call  his  own — 
there  must,  in  other  words,  be  a  weekly  Sabbath. 

But,  second,  the  Sabbatic  institution  provides  subjects  and 
occupations  fitted  to  stimulate  and  discipline  the  faculties  of  the 
human  mind. 

The  period  that  can  be  allowed  the  great  majority  of  men  in  a 
civilized  country  for  cessation  from  their  ordinary  business,  must 
necessarily  be  a  small  proportion  of  their  whole  time.  It  would, 
therefore,  require  to  be  well  husbanded  and  laid  out,  so  as  most 
effectually  to  secure  to  intellectual  labourers  engagement  on  sub 
jects  the  most  important,  and  yet  the  most  diverse  from  those 
that  usually  engross  their  thoughts,  and  to  manual  labourers  the 
best  nourishment  and  exercise  for  their  spiritual  nature.  If  so 
brief  and  precious  a  season  be  not  thus  spent,  it  might,  in  so  far  as 
mental  profit  is  concerned,  be  as  well  not  possessed  at  all.  And 
to  the  mass  of  men  there  must  in  such  a  matter  be  prescription. 
To  leave  them  in  ignorance  and  uncertainty  as  to  the  manner  of 
employing  their  leisure  time,  would  be,  in  the  far  greater  number 
of  cases,  to  render  the  time  useless,  or  rather  a  burden  and  a 
curse.  ~>  H 

How  fully  does  the  Sabbath  meet  those  demands  !  Its  work, 
as  well  as  its  specific  time,  is  appointed.  In  adaptation  to  our 
constitution,  that  work  is  not  only  different  from  the  secular 
business  of  other  days,  but  diversified  in  its  parts,  uniting  the 
public,  the  domestic,  and  the  personal — the  pleasure  and  the 
profit  of  acquiring  knowledge,  by  the  various  channels  of  reading, 
hearing,  and  reflection — and  the  opportunities  of  imparting  in 
struction  and  administering  comfort  to  our  fellow-creatures. 
Such  are  the  wise  arrangements  and  determination  of  the  work  of 
the  day. 

Then  what  grander,  more  interesting,  or  more  beneficial  sub 
jects  can  be  presented  to  human  inquiry  than  creation  and  its 
works — the  world  in  its  divine  government  and  redemption — tho 
Supreme  Being  in  his  infinite  and  glorious  perfections — the  rela 
tion  of  man  to  his  Maker,  to  the  present  scene,  and  to  a  future 
state — the  cause  and  results  of  his  manifest  depravation — and  the 


186  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

knowledge,  purity,  and  happiness  which  are  the  destined  inherit 
ance  of  a  coming  age  !  What  engagements,  too,  can  be  more 
ennobling  or  gladdening  than  drawing  near  to  the  Eternal,  offer 
ing  him  homage,  investigating  his  character  and  works,  and  cele 
brating  his  praise  ?  Intelligent  on  such  topics,  and  stimulated  by 
such  exercises,  what  higher  learning  or  better  mental  training  can 
a  man  receive — to  what  other  kind  of  knowledge  or  intellectual 
effort  can  he  be  either  indifferent  or  inadequate  ? 

There  is  one  special  means  of  favourably  influencing  the  general 
mind,  which  may  be  considered  as  almost  identified  with  the 
Sabbath,  being  a  kindred  institution  that  has  sprung  up  with  it, 
and  shared  its  fortunes  of  prosperity  or  decay.  We  refer  to  the 
pulpit.  One  man  has  by  previous  training  been  prepared  for  the 
office  of  a  preacher,  and  devotes  himself  to  the  collection  of  those 
stores  of  truth  which  he  gives  out  on  the  first  day  of  the  week 
to  hundreds  or  thousands,  whereby  he  stirs  dormant  faculties, 
enlightens  ignorance,  and  suggests  topics  of  consolation  and  en 
couragement  under  the  toils  and  trials  of  life.  The  work  of  one 
saves  that  of  many,  and  as  he  profits  by  the  exertions  of  the 
merchant,  husbandman,  and  mechanic,  so  they  receive  the  fruit  of 
his  studies  without  being  subjected  to  his  peculiar  labours.  When 
to  these  considerations  we  add  the  power  of  the  living  voice,  the 
sympathies  of  associated  hearers,  and,  above  all,  the  magnitude  of 
the  themes  illustrated  and  enforced,  we  venture  to  affirm  that  no 
means  are  more  adapted  to  the  constitution  and  improvement  of 
the  human  mind,  than  the  Christian  pulpit.  The  fit  occupant  of 
so  commanding  a  post  must  wield  a  mighty  influence  over  the 
minds  of  his  fellow-men.  "  The  messenger  of  truth  " — 

"  Armed  himself  in  panoply  complete 
Of  heavenly  temper,  furnishes  with  arms 
Bright  as  his  own,  and  trains,  by  every  rule 
Of  holy  discipline,  to  glorious  war, 
The  sacramental  host  of  God's  elect. 
Are  all  such  teachers?    Would  to  Heaven  all  were  !" 

There  is  another  specific  means  of  intellectual  benefit  connected 
with  the  institution — Sabbath-evening  instruction — which  may 
"be  ranked  next  in  importance  to  the  pulpit  itself.  By  requiring 


INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS.  187 

from  children  and  domestics  an  account  of  what  they  have  heard 
from  their  ministers  during  the  day,  and  by  catechetical  exer 
cises  on  that  evening,  heads  of  families  may  largely  promote  their 
own  improvement  and  that  of  their  households.  Where  these 
duties  are  conducted  with  wisdom  xind  affection,  what  an  amount 
of  information  may  be  lodged  in  the  memories,  what  an  impulse, 
given  to  the  faculties,  of  teachers,  and  taught  !  Nor  is  this  the 
only  way  in  which  the  evening  of  a  holy  day  can  be  turned  to 
account  in  the  communication  of  knowledge.  Many  are  so  cir 
cumstanced  as  to  have  it  in  their  power  to  take  charge  of  young 
persons  who  have  no  others  to  care  for  their  welfare,  and  Sab 
bath-schools  prove,  like  parental  tuition  and  deeds  of  charity,  the 
means  of  blessing  both  the  givers  and  the  receivers.  If  there 
were  no  such  day,  however,  or  if  it  were  devoted  to  manual 
labour  or  to  pleasure,  the  vast  machinery  of  mental  and  moral 
education  to  which  we  have  now  referred  could  not  exist. 

But  valuable  as  are  the  engagements  of  the  day  in  these  respects, 
we  should  not  fully  estimate  their  worth,  if  we  did  not  take  into 
account  the  means  of  instruction  and  mental  improvement  on 
other  days,  which  they  stimulate  and  maintain. 

The  Sabbatic  institution  stands  related  not  merely  to  the  public 
teaching  of  the  preacher,  but  to  the  more  frequent  private  mini 
strations  of  the  pastor.  The  presence  of  such  a  man,  educated  as 
he  ought  ever  to  be  and  usually  is,  must  be  a  light  to  his  neigh 
bours.  By  his  conversation  in  company — by  his  official  visits 
from  house  to  house — by  his  attention  to  the  young — by  his  en 
couragement  of  reading  and  education — and  by  the  necessity  laid 
upon  him,  in  connexion  with  other  office-bearers  of  the  Church,  to 
exclude  the  grossly  ignorant  from  certain  Christian  privileges,  he 
is  perhaps  more  than  any  other  single  individual  the  instrument 
of  awakening  inquiry  and  diffusing  knowledge. 

While  idleness,  secular  work,  and  frivolous  or  worse  pursuits  on 
the  sacred  day,  give  their  corresponding  tone  to  the  mind  in  the 
progress  of  the  week,  the  person  who  has  been  on  that  day  con 
versant  with  highly  intellectual  and  interesting  themes  will  be 
constrained  to  follow  out  those  trains  of  thought  which  such  engage 
ments  have  originated.  One  inquiry  suggests  another.  Acquisi 
tions  are  successively  made.  And  thus  from  week  to  week  the 


188  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

man  advances  in  the  highest,  most  comprehensive,  most  useful  of 
all  departments  of  knowledge — the  knowledge  of  himself,  and  of 
the  Being  who  alone  presents  an  object  that  answers  the  demands 
of  the  human  understanding,  and  satisfies  the  cravings  of  the 
human  heart. 

The  observer  of  the  Sabbath,  moreover,  is  induced  by  its  in 
structions,  and  by  his  own  conscience  and  inclinations  to  practise, 
daily,  certain  duties  than  which  no  means  can  be  conceived  more 
subservient  to  intellectual  profit.  He  who  has  on  that  day  heard 
with  proper  earnestness  and  interest  the  public  reading  and  exposi 
tion  of  portions  of  the  sacred  volume,  must  desire  to  repair  to  its 
pages  for  further  information,  and  for  testing  the  sentiments  of  the 
preacher.  Every  one  knows  the  effect  of  persevering  diligence  in 
any  pursuit.  And  what  must  be  the  expanding,  assimilating  power 
of  a  Book,  containing  confessedly  the  loftiest  truths,  the  most 
perfect  rules  of  morals,  the  finest  poetry,  the  most  ancient  history, 
the  most  graphic  pictures  of  nature,  the  profoundest  views  of 
man,  the  noblest  strains  of  eloquence,  over  the  mind  of  him  who 
"  gives  his  days  and  his  nights  "  to  its  perusal  1  If  the  saying, 
"  Beware  of  the  man  of  one  book,"  as  intimating  the  intellectual 
prowess  of  such  a  reader,  was  ever  in  its  fullest  sense  applicable 
to  any  one,  it  must  have  been  to  the  student  of  the  greatest  and 
best  of  books — the  Bible. 

To  the  searching  of  the  Scriptures,  the  friend  of  the  Sabbath 
adds  a  service  no  less  effectual  for  mental  elevation.  He  holds 
intercourse  by  prayer  with  the  All- wise  and  the  Almighty.  And 
if  converse  with  the  intelligent  has  the  effect  of  informing  and 
expanding  the  mind,  how  mighty  the  influence  on  the  intellectual 
faculties  of  frequent  communion  with  "  the  Father  of  lights  !" 

It  is  the  practice  of  all  heads  of  families  who  are  marked  by 
their  reverence  for  the  Lord's  day,  to  convene  their  households 
morning  and  evening,  when  possible,  for  devotion,  including  praise, 
the  reading  of  the  word  of  God,  and  prayer.  "  This  is  a  school 
of  religious  instruction.  The  whole  contents  of  the  sacred  volume 
are  in  due  course  laid  open  before  the  members  of  the  family. 
Every  day  they  are  receiving  *  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  pre 
cept.'  A  fresh  accession  is  continually  making  to  their  stock  of 
knowledge ;  new  truths  are  gradually  opened  to  their  view,  and 


INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS.  189 

the  impressions  of  old  truths  are  revived." l  That  this  admirable 
discipline  of  the  intellect  is  provided  by  the  authority  which 
appointed  the  day  of  sacred  rest  might  be  shown.  It  is  sufficient, 
however,  for  our  present  purpose  to  state,  that  Sabbath  observers 
feel  both  an  obligation  and  a  disposition  to  follow  up  their  public 
services  on  that  day  with  those  of  personal  and  domestic  devotion. 
When  David,  King  of  Israel,  had  been  employed  in  the  public  acts 
of  religion,  he  "returned  to  bless  his  household."  "Public  exer 
cises  of  religion,  when  properly  conducted,  have  a  happy  tendency 
to  prepare  the  mind  for  those  of  a  more  private  nature.  When  the 
soul  is  elevated  and  the  heart  softened  by  the  feelings  which 
public  worship  is  calculated  to  inspire,  we  are  prepared  to  address 
the  throne  of  grace  with  peculiar  advantage  :  we  are  disposed  to 
enter  with  a  proper  relish  on  such  a  duty,  and  thus  to  go  from 
strength  to  strength."2 

To  the  means  of  intellectual  improvement  furnished  by  the  in 
stitution,  may  be  added  the  useful  reading,  the  rational  con 
versation,  and  the  meetings  for  religious  conference,  for  secular 
instruction,  and  for  other  important  objects  to  which  the  friends 
of  the  Sabbath  are  incited  by  its  teachings  and  studies,  and  which, 
while  indisposing  for  and  precluding  indolence  and  unworthy  occu 
pations,  make  them  intelligent  and  acute  on  all  subjects  that  con 
cern  their  true  interests.  The  desire  of  knowledge,  awakened  in 
reference  to  the  momentous  matters  of  religion,  will  "  seek  and 
intermeddle  with  all  wisdom." 

From  the  account  of  the  educational  provisions  of  the  Sabbath 
which  has  thus  been  presented,  it  might  be  conclusively  inferred 
that  an  institution  so  adapted  to  the  constitution  and  improvement 
of  the  human  mind  must  yield  correspondent  fruit ;  in  other 
words,  that  individuals  must  be  distinguished  by  intelligence,  and 
communities  by  civilisation,  in  proportion  as  they  have  observed  a 
weekly  day  of  sacred  rest.  It  ought  to  require  no  tedious  process 
of  reasoning,  or  long  array  of  facts,  to  convince  any  one  that  a 
person  who  rests  every  seventh  day  from  severe  intellectual  efforts, 
and  refreshes  his  spirit  for  new  exertions,  will  be  more  enlightened 
and  more  capable  of  adding  to  the  stock  of  human  knowledge 
than  another  who  goes  on  in  an  unrelieved,  unvarying,  and  there* 

*  Robert  Hall's  Works,  ]2mo.  vol.  v  p.  289.  *  Ibid.  pp.  283,  284, 

9* 


190  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

fore  depressing  and  enfeebling  course  of  application  to  the  same 
studies.  Argument  and  evidence  ought  still  less  to  be  demanded 
in  support  of  the  very  obvious  truth,  that  the  man  who  spends 
fifty-two  days  of  the  year  in  dealing  with  the  most  intellectual  and 
varied  of  all  subjects,  will  be  superior  in  mental  capacity  and 
acquirements  to  him  who  spends  the  same  amount  of  time  in  un 
remitting  bodily  toil,  or  in  mere  recreation  and.  amusement.  In 
proportion  as  this  is  true  of  the  individuals  composing  a  society, 
it  must  be  true  of  the  aggregate  body.  The  inveterate  dislike  to 
the  institution,  however,  which  has  set  many  to  the  utmost  stretch 
of  their  ingenuity  for  the  purpose  of  perplexing  and  complicating 
a  very  plain  matter,  requires  us  to  show  that  intellectual  improve 
ment,  besides  being  among  the  adaptations,  is  everywhere  the 
actual  result  of  a  hallowed  Sabbath. 

What  Sabbath-observing  nation,  it  has  been  asked,  has  ever 
been  barbarous  or  ignorant  ?  The  lands  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  the 
Bible  have  always  been  the  chosen  abodes  of  knowledge,  and  the 
lights  of  the  earth.  The  Jews  were  in  possession  of  a  literature 
when  darkness  covered  all  other  people.  Every  nation  that 
received  the  gospel  and  the  Christian  Sabbath  found  them  to  be 
the  elements  of  learning  and  civilisation.  Corrupted  though 
Christianity  soon  became,  it  remained  even  in  the  dark  ages  in 
some  measure  an  asylum  of  literature  and  a  conservator  of  learned 
works.  Whence  that  corruption  ?  Rome  perverted  the  Sabbath, 
discouraged  the  general  reading  of  the  sacred  volume,  and  well- 
jiigh  quenched  the  light  of  the  pulpit  in  spectacles,  pageants,  buf 
foonery,  and  the  mysteries  of  the  mass,  and  its  life  in  pa?ans  to 
Mary  and  curses  against  heretics,  proving  herself  then,  as  she  is 
at  ill,  an  incubus  on  the  progress  of  Europe  to  light  and  pros 
perity.  But  the  Reformation,  which  liberated  the  sacred  day  from 
human  impositions,  raised  it  from  the  degrading  level  of  un 
authorized  festivals,  restored  the  Scriptures  to  unrestricted  use, 
and  elevated  the  pulpit  to  its  place  as  the  great  instrument  of  un 
folding  and  enforcing  sacred  truth  and  law,  was  everywhere  the 
reviver  of  letters,  and  the  nurse  of  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  intelli 
gence.  Let  England  and  France,  Scotland  and  Spain,  Canada 
Upper  and  Canada  Lower,  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  Ulster 
and  Counanght,  show  h DW  much  intellectual  character  is  affected 


INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS.  191 

by  the  presence  or  absence  of  a  holy  Sabbath.  No  country  has 
continued  so  long  to  maintain  its  superiority  in  respect  of  the 
attainments  of  its  learned  men,  and  the  general  intelligence  of  its 
people,  as  Britain ;  and  in  no  country  has  more  regard  been 
evinced  to  the  Lord's  day.  Next  in  order  to  Britain  comes 
America,  advancing  with  rapid  strides  in  "  the  march  of  intellect" 
as  well  as  of  religion,  and  already,  perhaps,  in  the  department  of 
common  education,  outstripping  its  rival.  Nor  in  their  own  mental 
supremacy  merely,  but  in  taking  the  lead  of  all  others  as  pro 
pagators  of  knowledge  and  civilisation  throughout  the  world,  do 
these  great  nations  exhibit  the  power  of  the  principles  which  it 
is  the  business  of  the  Sabbath  to  expound  and  conserve,  to  enforce 
and  diffuse.  Never  was  more  done  in  defence  of  the  institution, 
or  more  of  its  spirit  felt,  than  from  the  middle  of  Elizabeth's 
reign  to  the  Restoration,  a  period  which  a  high  authority  pro 
nounces  to  be  unequalled  in  point  of  "  real  force  and  originality 
of  genius"  by  any  other  age,  those  of  Pericles,  of  Augustus,  of 
Leo  x.,  and  of  Louis  xrv.,  being  unworthy  of  comparison  with  it.1 
No  less  distinguished,  as  regards  the  body  of  the  people,  were  the 
times  in  the  history  of  Scotland  when  not  only  the  claims  and 
observance  of  the  Lord's  day  were  contended  for,  but  efforts  were 
successfully  made  to  set  up  an  adequate  number  of  schools  in 
every  parish,  as  well  as  to  raise  a  high  standard  of  theological 
literature ;  and  the  times  of  those  Puritans  who  settled  in 
America,  and  who,  the  friends  of  a  day  of  holy  rest,  were  also 
educated  and  intelligent  men,  few  if  any  of  them  being  unable  to 
read,  and  one  of  the  first  subjects  of  their  attention  being  a  suit 
able  provision  for  the  establishment  of  common  schools  and 
academies.  In  our  own  day,  it  is  Sabbath-observing  parents  who 
are  most  anxious  to  have  their  children  educated  ;  it  is  Sabbath  - 
keeping  artisans  who  are  the  most  diligent  readers  of  their  class, 
as  well  as  the  most  numerous  pupils  in  our  schools  of  art.  The 
fact  of  one  thousand  and  forty-five  working  men  having  written 
essays  on  the  institution — all  of  them  creditable  to  the  writers — 
six  hundred  of  them  so  respectable,  as,  in  the  opinion  of  a  gentle 
man  who  had  carefully  examined  them,  to  be  worthy  of  appearing 

i  Francis  Jeffrey.    See  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xviii.  pp.  275,   276 ;  and  Jeffrey's 
Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  ii.  pp.  38,  39. 


192  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

in  print,  and  a  few  such  as  would  have  done  no  discredit  to  the 
most  practised  pens,  is  indeed  a  phenomenon  in  the  literary  world, 
which  nothing  but  the  mighty  power  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  its 
connected  influences  can  explain.  Many  working  men,  however, 
have  no  weekly  resting-day.  Now,  as  one  of  the  above-mentioned 
writers  asks,  "  When  did  we  ever  meet  with  any  one  who  from 
the  nature  of  his  employment  is  required  to  labour  on  the  Sabbath 
as  on  other  days,  who  has  come  out  of  his  obscurity,  and  taken 
his  stand  as  an  author  in  literature,  science,  morals,  or  religion  ? 
Indeed,"  as  he  adds,  "  no  one  expects  it ;  the  bare  supposition  is 
ludicrous."1  And  yet  these  men  are  not  inferior  in  natural 
capacities  to  other  men.  Their  frequent  efforts  to  obtain  eman 
cipation  from  their  protracted  hours  of  labour,  that  they  might 
enjoy  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day,  have  evinced  a  desire  of  better 
things,  as  well  as  a  deep  conviction,  that,  while  the  cause  of  their 
degradation  is  the  loss  of  that  sacred  season,  its  recovery  is  the 
main  instrument  for  elevating  their  mental  condition. 

If  the  Sabbath  had  done  nothing  more  than  promote  the  intelli 
gence  and  civilisation  of  the  masses,  it  would  be  entitled  to  our 
high  regards.  But  this  is  not  its  only  intellectual  triumph.  It 
blesses  in  the  same  way  all  classes  of  minds  that  come  under  its 
influence.  In  the  department  of  secular  knowledge,  it  is  a  means 
of  good  to  both  foes  and  friends ;  to  foes,  who  are  trained  in 
youth  under  its  auspices,  and  afterwards  feel  the  salutary  impulse 
of  its  encompassing  spirit ;  to  friends,  among  whom  may  ever  be 
discovered  the  most  distinguished  men  in  all  kinds  of  mental 
endowments  and  exertion,  with  a  few,  such  as  Lord  Bacon,  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  John  Locke,  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  who,  by  gene 
ral  consent,  occupy  a  pre-eminent  place  among  the  intellectually 
great.  And  there  is  another  department  of  knowledge,  the  spiri 
tual,  belonging  exclusively  to  true  Christians,  who,  in  proportion 
as  they  have  maintained  the  integrity  and  honour  of  their  religious 
institutions,  have,  by  "rising  from  nature"  to  its  Author,  by 
searching  after  "  the  cause  of  causes,"  and  in  the  range  of  their 
vision  taking  in  the  infinite  and  eternal,  proved  themselves  to  be 
long  to  a  higher  order  of  intelligences,  and  to  possess  far  greater 
grasp  and  power  of  mind  than  those  philosophers,  scholars,  and 

1  The  Univer$al  Treasure,  p.  126. 


INTELLECTUAL  ADAPTATIONS.  193 

sages,  who  are  learned  in  the  writings  of  men,  but  not  in  the 
Word  of  God  ;  who  have  measured  the  distance  of  the  stars,  and 
told  us  what  is  contained  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  but  have  not 
soared  to  the  heaven  above,  nor  sounded  the  hell  below ;  who 
have  calculated  the  period  of  an  eclipse,  but  not  the  hour  of 
death;  who  have  explored  the  constitution  of  the  soul,  but  con 
sidered  not  its  accountableness  or  destination  ;  who  have  wasted 
themselves  in  investigating  the  changes  which  this  earth  has 
undergone,  without  a  single  reflection  on  their  concern  in  that 
great  crisis,  when  "  the  earth  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall 
ba  burnt  up." 


194  ADVANTAGES  0   £HE  SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  1L 
MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

«•  A  corruption  of  morals  usually  follows  a  profanation  of  the  Sabbath."— BLACKSTONK. 
"  II  n'y  a  pas  de  religion  sans  culte,  et  il  n'y  a  pas  de  culte  sans  dimanche." 

MONTALEMBEBT. 

JOHN  FOSTEK  describes  the  Sabbath  as  "  a  remarkable  ap 
pointment  for  .raising  the  general  tenour  of  moral  existence."1 
The  saying,  and  that  of  Blackstone,  as  may  afterwards  appear, 
are  abundantly  verified  by  facts.  Meanwhile,  a  brief  inquiry 
into  the  rationale  of  the  matter  will  discover  grounds  for  accredit 
ing  the  institution  with  the  results  uniformly  seen  to  follow  its 
observance — in  other  words,  for  identifying  it  as  an  essential 
instrument  in  their  production. 

First)  then,  if  we  view  the  weekly  holy  day  as  a  periodical 
pause  of  labour,  we  shall  find  that  it  is  conducive  to  the  interests 
of  morality.  Its  regular  rest  recruits  the  animal  frame,  and 
prevents  some  strong  temptations  to  intemperance.  Men  must 
have  either  rest,  or  artificial  means  of  enabling  them  to  sustain 
an  unnatural  amount  of  effort.  The  Sabbath  provides  the  former, 
intoxicating  drink  supplies  the  latter.  The  weekly  season  of  free 
dom  from  toil  and  trouble  secures  also  a  regular  opportunity  for  the 
cultivation  of  domestic  intercourse,  that  powerful  incentive  to  virtue. 
In  the  nature  of  things  can  virtue  thrive,  or  vice  fail  to  abound, 
among  married  persons  who  are  deprived  of  the  soothing,  refining 
influences  of  home,  and  must  not  the  unmarried  be  led  by  the 
same  circumstances  to  forego  the  hope  of  honourable  matrimony, 
and  to  resort  to  an  unhallowed  substitute  ?  Incessant  labour, 
moreover,  renders  moral  improvement  impracticable,  as  it  allows 
no  sufficient  or  regular  time  for  attention  to  the  matter.  It  op- 

i  Evil*  of  Popular  Ignorance  (1839),  pp.  47,  4& 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  195 

presses  and  irritates  the  workman,  and  thus  tempts  him  to  save 
his  exertions  by  a  hurried  unfaithful  performance  of  his  task,  or 
by  the  still  easier  process  of  stealing  or  begging  his  bread.  And 
from  the  contracting  influence  of  one  ever-present  engrossing  ob 
ject,  as  well  as  from  the  controlling,  assimilating  power  of  scenes 
of  impurity  and  discomfort,  it  not  only  prevents  expansion  of 
mind  beyond  the  narrow  sphere  of  his  own  fatigues  and  wants,  and 
precludes  any  lofty  aspirings  to  what  is  either  good  or  great,  but 
tends  to  sink  the  man  in  the  animal — to  brutalize  him — to  make 
him  utterly  selfish  and  savage,  unless,  as  sometimes  happens,  it 
reduce  him  to  so  entire  a  prostration  of  spirit  and  energy  as  to 
render  him  incapable  of  doing  much  of  either  good  or  evil. 
Scarcely  less  immoral  in  its  tendency  is  mental  toil,  absorbing  as 
it  does  the  mind  in  its  one  subject,  so  that  no  other  can  command 
its  interest,  and  impairing  the  intellectual  and  physical  powers, 
the  health  and  vigour  of  which  are  so  necessary  to  high  moral 
attainments,  and  to  sustained  moral  efforts. 

But,  secondly,  we  must  consider  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  in 
struction  and  worship  in  order  to  complete  the  evidence  of  its 
moral  power. 

The  provision  of  respite  from  ordinary  labour  is  but  a  part  of 
the  Sabbatic  arrangement — a  part  of  it,  indeed,  good  in  its  place — 
capable  of  advantage,  but  convertible  also  to  evil,  and  then  only 
answering  its  whole  design,  as  well  as  serving  fully  its  end  of  rest, 
when  it  is  made  tributary  to  its  sacred  objects.  It  is  as  a  day  of 
holy  rest  that  it  is  so  powerful  in  promoting  the  physical  well- 
being  'and  mental  improvement  of  mankind.  And  it  will  not 
accomplish  much  for  their  moral  benefit,  if  the  enjoyment  of  its 
rest  be  not  conjoined  with  the  right  use  of  its  means  of  religious 
knowledge  and  worship. 

What  the  institution  and  observances  are  which  are  found  to 
be  connected  with  a  high  measure  of  morality  in  any  case,  we 
have  already  described  in  the  preceding  remarks  on  the  arrange 
ments  which  have  been  shown  to  be  favourable  to  the  improve 
ment  of  the  mind,  and  which  might  be  proved  to  be  equally  so  to 
that  of  the  manners.  It  is  necessary,  in  addition,  merely  to  advert 
in  a  few  words  to'  the  following  characteristics  of  the  Sabbath 
wherever  it  stands  related  to  superior  virtue  among  a  people. 


196  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

The  most  perfect  rule  of  ethics,  according  to  the  confessions 
even  of  infidels,  is  expounded  and  studied  on  that  day — a  rule 
extending  to  the  relations  and  circumstances  of  all  mankind — 
uniting  with  this  universality  of  reference,  a  wonderful  concise 
ness,  simplicity,  and  clearness — unassailably  self-consistent — em 
bracing  the  regulation  of  every  outward  act,  and  yet  preferring  its 
chief  claims  to  a  pure  heart — and  inculcating  love  to  all  men, 
founded  on  a  paramount  love  to  the  Supreme  Being.  This  rule  is 
held  forth  under  the  authority  of  the  Divine  Creator  and  Governor 
of  the  Universe,  who  has  declared  the  penalty  of  its  violation  to 
be  eternal  death.  But  along  with  these  truths,  it  is  announced 
that  the  Lawgiver  himself,  in  compassion  to  his  creatures,  and 
yet  resolved  that  the  purity  of  his  name  and  government  shall 
receive  no  taint,  has  provided  in  the  substitution  and  sacrifice  of 
a  Personage,  at  once  Divine  and  human,  an  atonement  for  trans 
gression.  It  is  proclaimed,  also,  that  he  is  willing  to  receive  into 
favour  all  who  repent  and  accept  reconciliation  through  this 
medium,  and  that  those  who  do  so  shall  then  come  under  the 
Divine  law  as  divested  of  the  condemnatioi)  and  terror  which  the 
breach  of  it  had  caused,  and  shall  find  a  course  of  obedience  to  it 
accompanied  by  abundant  help,  profit,  and  pleasure  here,  and  fol 
lowed  by  perpetual  honour  and  happiness  in  a  nobler  state  of 
being  hereafter.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  considerations  more 
powerful  than  these  for  awing  and  melting  human  hearts,  and  for 
inspiring  those  feelings  of  penitence,  fear,  hope,  joy,  love,  which 
bear  irresistible  sway  over  the  minds  of  men.  There  is  the  highest 
moral  discipline  in  the  study  of  such  themes.  But  to  this  are 
added  the  elevating  approach  to  the  Being  of  infinite  greatness, 
purity,  and  love — the  communion  of  fellow-men  in  circumstances 
so  fitted  to  beget  feelings  of  mutual  sympathy  and  regard — the 
watchful  care  of  faithful  guardians  over  the  temporal  interests  and 
moral  condition  of  the  people  on  every  day — and  the  various  in 
fluences  of  reading,  reflection,  example,  instruction,  and  counsel, 
for  which  the  Sabbath  guarantees  time  and  opportunity  to  those 
who  hallow  its  sacred  hours.  We  have  to  add  that  in  connexion 
with  such  means  of  good  there  is  imparted  a  celestial  influence  — 
the  necessity  of  which  human  frailty  prcves,  and  the  actual  re 
ceiving  of  which  the  experience  of  the  most  virtuous  men  attests, 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  197 

disposing  the  individual  to  abandon  the  most  vicious  habits  and 
to  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  piously  in  the  world. 

Where,  we  may  ask,  can  there  be  pointed  out  a  similar  provi 
sion  for  teaching  and  enforcing  morality,  or  the  laws  of  any  society 
or  country  1  The  purest  ethics  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  pol 
luted  by  foul  admixtures ;  wanted  authority ;  were  recommended 
by  no  perfect  example  in  gods  or  men  ;  relaxed  law  to  accommo 
date  human  imperfection,  instead  of  presenting  means  of  vindicat 
ing  the  law  by  the  punishment  of  the  offence,  and  yet  of  restoring 
the  offender  to  favour  and  purity ;  and  contained  no  provision  for 
securing  influence  to  prompt  and  strengthen  virtuous  endeavour. 
Passing  over  other  systems  liable  to  equally  fatal  objections,  we 
find  those  Protestants,  who  claim  the  right  to  abridge  the  time 
and  to  lower  the  obligation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  stripping  it 
of  well-nigh  everything  that  seems  to  constitute  its  moral  power. 
To  secularize  the  day  in  any  form  or  degree  does  not  appear  a 
likely  means  of  enabling  a  man  to  shake  off  the  dust  of  earth,  and 
to  nourish  his  mental  part,  his  immortal  spirit.  Nor  do  the 
services  usually  attached  to  such  a  Sabbath — the  devotions  en 
gaged  in  as  if  they  were  a  disrelished  task,  and  cold  prelections 
on  virtue,  with  little  or  no  reference  to  resources  and  commanding 
motives  for  its  cultivation,  and  to  the  means  of  its  acceptance 
above — give  the  best  promise  of  moral  fruit. 

How  a  Sabbath,  sneeringly  called  puritanical,  but  in  reality 
regulated,  as  will  be  proved,  by  the  law  of  its  Author,  should  exert 
an  influence  on  character  so  much  more  potent  and  salutary  than 
that  of  any  other  scheme,  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive.  Some  of 
the  principles  involved  in  the  subject  have  been  recognised  by 
persons  of  the  greatest  name  in  ethical  science,  and  in  practical 
philanthropy.  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  when  referring  to  the  supe 
rior  excellence  of  certain  communities,  observes,  "  Those  who 
preached  faith,  or,  in  other  words,  a  pure  mind,  have  always  pro 
duced  more  popular  virtue  than  those  who  preached  good  works, 
or  the  mere  regulation  of  outward  acts."1  The  principle  of  faith, 
which,  terminating  on  merely  human  testimony,  is  so  controlling 
a  power  in  the  business  of  life,  is,  when  its  object  is  the  Word  of 
God,  as  much  more  operative  as  the  evidence  is  more  certain,  and 

i  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  411. 


198  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

as  the  truths  and  facts  are  immensely  more  important.  Let  men 
believe  that  they  are  under  the  eye  of  an  omniscient,  almighty, 
pure,  and  benignant  Intelligence,  to  whom  they  are  responsible 
for  every  thought  as  well  as  every  action,  and  especially  that  "  the 
same  awful  Being  submitted  to  pay  the  forfeiture  of  sin  in  his 
own  person,"  that  they  might  not  die  for  ever ;  and  must  not 
this  belief  "  work  by  love,"  "  purify  the  heart,"  and  "  overcome 
the  world,"  so  as  that  it  shall  be  powerless  to  terrify  or  seduce 
from  the  path  of  rectitude  1  A  philosopher,  even  more  distin 
guished  than  the  one  just  named,  has  borne  a  still  fuller  testimony 
to  our  principles.  It  is  a  well-known  fact,  for  which  they  have 
often  been  vilified,  that  the  advocates  of  a  strictly  observed  Sab 
bath  hold  at  the  same  time  the  necessity,  if  we  would  lead  men 
to  happiness  and  virtue,  of  the  greatest  prominence  being  given  in 
its  instructions  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  as  the  means  of 
reconciliation  with  Heaven.  Dr.  Adam  Smith  had  the  sagacity  to 
see  the  truth  and  importance  of  this  doctrine.  "  If  man,"  he 
says,  "  would  hope  for  happiness,  he  is  conscious  that  he  cannot 
demand  it  from  the  justice,  but  that  he  must  entreat  it  from  the 
mercy  of  God.  Repentance,  sorrow,  humiliation,  contrition  at  the 
thought  of  his  past  conduct,  are,  upon  this  account,  the  sentiments 
which  become  him,  and  seem  to  be  the  only  means  which  he  has 
left  for  appeasing  that  wrath  which,  he  knows,  he  has  justly  pro 
voked.  He  even  distrusts  the  efficacy  of  all  these,  and  naturally 
fears  lest  the  wisdom  of  God  should  not,  like  the  weakness  of 
man,  be  prevailed  upon  to  spare  the  crime,  by  the  most  impor 
tunate  lamentations  of  the  criminal.  Some  other  intercession, 
some  other  sacrifice,  some  other  Atonement,  he  imagines,  must  be 
made  for  him,  beyond  what  he  himself  is  capable  of  making,  before 
the  purity  of  the  Divine  justice  can  be  reconciled  to  his  manifold 
offences.  The  doctrines  of  revelation  coincide,  in  every  respect, 
with  these  original  anticipations  of  nature  ;  and,  as  they  teach  us 
how  little  we  can  depend  upon  the  imperfection  of  our  own  vir 
tues,  so  they  show  us,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  most  powerful 
intercession  has  been  made,  and  that  the  most  dreadful  atonement 
has  been  paid,  for  our  manifold  transgressions  and  iniquities."1 

1  Theory  of  Moral  Sentwients  (1759),  pp.  205,  206.    These  juid  some  other  noble  soa* 
tences  are  omitted  in  later  editions. 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  199 

Another  characteristic  of  societies  in  which  the  Lord's  day  is 
regarded  with  peculiar  respect  is  a  watchful  care  over  their  mem 
bers.  Let  us  hear  the  words  of  the  same  writer,  adducing  evidence 
for  the  moral  benefit  of  the  practice  only  the  more  reliable  that 
it  plainly  comes  from  no  partisan.  Referring  to  a  person  passing 
from  his  notoriety  in  a  country  village  to  the  obscurity  of  a  large 
town,  where,  unnoticed,  he  is  very  likely  to  abandon  himself  to 
every  sort  of  lowest  profligacy  and  vice,  he  adds,  "  He  never 
emerges  so  effectually  from  this  obscurity  ;  his  conduct  never 
excites  so  much  the  attention  of  any  respectable  society  as  by  his 
becoming  the  member  of  a  small  religious  sect.  He  from  that 
moment  acquires  a  degree  of  consideration  which  he  never  had 
before.  All  his  brother  sectaries  are,  for  the  credit  of  the  sect, 
interested  to  observe  his  conduct ;  and  if  he  gives  occasion  to  any 
scandal,  if  he  deviates  very  much  from  those  austere  morals,  which 
they  almost  always  require  of  one  another,  to  punish  him  by  what 
is  always  a  very  severe  punishment,  even  where  no  civil  effects 
attend  it — expulsion  or  excommunication.  In  little  religious 
sects,  accordingly,  the  morals  of  the  common  people  have  been 
almost  always  remarkably  regular  and  orderly,  generally  much 
more  so  than  in  the  Established  Church.  The  morals  of  those 
little  sects,  indeed,  have  frequently  been  rather  disagreeably  rigor 
ous  and  unsocial." l 

While  philosophy  has  thus  appreciated  some  of  the  principles 
of  our  subject,  philanthropy  has  borrowed  others  of  them  for  the 
reformation  of  society.  The  effective  exertions  of  Mrs.  Fry,  for 
the  good  of  prisoners,  proceeded  on  the  principle  that  to  reach  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  to  inspire  them  with  the  only  morality  worth 
the  name,  that  which  is  of  love  and  choice,  you  must  treat  them 
with  kindness — a  principle  involved  in  the  whole  of  Christianity  ; 
in  its  law,  the  sum  of  which  is  love  ;  in  its  doctrines,  which  with 
out  omitting  to  influence  the  fears  and  to  secure  the  respect  of 
human  beings,  overpower  the  heart  by  their  matchless  exhibitions 
of  benevolence  and  mercy  ;  and  in  its  institutions,  not  the  least 
benignant  of  which  is  the  day  when  man  is  recreated  by  bodily 
rest,  and  has  the  opportunity  of  coming  under  the  discipline  of  a 
system  BO  mighty  for  winning  him  from  a  wretched  course  of  folly 

i  Wealth  of  Nations.,  B.  v.  ch.  i.  Art.  iii. 


200  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

to  the  path  of  purity  and  peace.  But,  in  fact,  as  art  has  derived 
many  of  its  finest  designs  from  nature,  so  all  classes  have  attested 
the  excellence  of  religion,  either  by  reverently  and  for  good  copy 
ing  its  measures,  or  by  stealing  them  with  the  view  of  effecting 
different  or  hostile  ends.  Julian  saw  it  necessary  to  adopt  its 
system  of  preaching  in  support  of  his  new  faith.  Its  music  has 
been  imitated  by  those  who  would  enliven  their  meetings  for  good 
or  evil.  Its  festivals  have  led  to  the  institution  of  days  in  honour 
of  great  men.  Its  means  of  circulating  knowledge  have  been 
applied  to  the  dissemination  of  error.  And  how  much,  to  add  no 
more,  has  its  Sabbath  been  made  use  of  by  those  who  never  cease 
to  malign  one  of  their  chief  boons  ! 

Let  us  now  endeavour  to  show  that  the  Sabbatic  institution  is 
an  indispensable  means  of  religious  good. 

The  necessity  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  to  the  prosperity  and  even 
preservation  of  religion  in  the  world  has  been  proclaimed  by  the 
almost  universal  voice  of  mankind.  Jews  and  Christians  have 
ever  devoted  a  seventh  day  to  holy  uses.  Mohammedanism  has 
always  appropriated  Friday  to  public  devotion  and  instruction. 
Paganism,  hojding  sacred  in  many  instances  the  same  propor 
tion  of  time,  has  in  no  instance  dropped  all  periodical  festivals, 
till  its  people  have  well-nigh  lost  the  conception  of  an  object  of 
worship.  That  so  many,  in  regions  and  periods  widely  remote  from 
each  other,  have  observed  a  Sabbath,  or  some  analogous  arrange 
ment,  is  a  strong  testimony  to  its  religious  necessity.  And  the  re 
maining  members  of  the  human  family,  by  whom  religion  has  been 
partially  or  altogether  discarded,  come  in  to  complete  the  univer 
sality  of  the  testimony.  Jeroboam,  king  of  Israel,  renounces  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  ;  but  finds  it  necessary  to  have  some  kind  of 
worship,  with  its  relative  places,  times,  and  priesthood.  Julian 
abandons  Christianity,  but  sees  the  advantage  to  his  new  religion 
of  introducing  into  the  temples  of  idolatry  a  system  of  public  in 
struction  after  the  model  of  that  of  the  Christian  Church.1  The 
French,  exchanging  Popery  for  the  religion  of  so-called  Reason, 
must  yet  have  their  temples  and  decades  for  upholding  and  pro 
moting  their  altered  faith,  and  are  soon  obliged  to  furnish  a 

i  Prideaux's  Connexion,  tie.  Part  i.  p.  390. 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  201 

stronger  verdict  on  the  subject  by  restoring  their  former  worship 
and  institutions  such  as  they  were.  And  in  our  own  country 
vaiious  classes,  who  have  rejected  the  authority  of  the  Sabbath, 
have,  notwithstanding,  justified  the  appointment  to  the  extent  of 
appropriating  the  day  to  meetings  for  the  advancement  of  their 
peculiar  opinions.  By  approving  of  the  Sabbath  abstractly  con 
sidered,  and  lauding  it  in  this  view  as  an  admirable  provision  for 
rest,  recreation,  and  mental  culture,  these  classes  unwittingly  pro 
nounce  a  judgment  in  favour  of  the  religious  institution,  for  they 
never  saw  or  heard  of  a  holy  day  entitled  to  such  praise  but  the 
one  which  religion  originated  and  has  maintained.  There  is  yet 
another  way  in  which  the  wise  are  taken  in  their  own  craftiness, 
and,  contrary  to  their  intention,  made  to  confess  the  religious 
power  of  the  holy  Sabbath.  Whence  the  desire  and  attempt  to 
destroy  the  day  as  a  day  of  sacred  rest  and  service  ?  Whence  but 
that  in  this  character  it  is  an  adjunct  and  indispensable  help  to 
religion  ?  The  French  were  aware  that,  most  summarily  and  effec 
tually  to  put  down  religion,  they  must  remove  its  weekly  holy  day. 
Despotic  rulers  have  known  well  that  to  break  down  the  Sabbath 
is  to  crush  the  spirit  and  the  liberty  which  religious  instruction 
and  worship  inspire.  And  when  infidelity  would  liberate  itself 
from  the  restraints  of  Christianity,  it  labours  to  reduce  the  Lord's 
day  to  the  continental  standard,  convinced  that  a  day  devoted  en 
tirely  to  rest  and  piety  is  the  chief  barder  to  the  compassing  of 
its  designs. 

Conclusive  in  favour  of  our  position  though  evidence  so  ample 
and  varied  is,  the  necessity  of  a  Sabbath  to  the  prosperity  and 
even  existence  of  religion  is  a  doctrine  which  derives  even  stronger 
support  from  the  nature  of  religion  itself,  considered  as  a  creed  to 
be  understood  and  believed,  a  ritual  to  be  observed,  and  a  rule  of 
moral  conduct  to  be  obeyed. 

First,  Religion  must  have  some  time  for  its  consideration  and 
practice.  This  is  surely  a  self-evident  truth. 

Second,  Religion  must  have  times  free  to  be  applied  to  its  busi 
ness.  This  proposition  is  scarcely  less  obviously  true  than  the 
preceding.  "  The  heathen  men  by  the  light  of  nature  have  seen 
that  everything  is  then  best  ordered  when  it  hath  but  one  office — 
that  is,  whatsoever  is  done,  it  must  be  thoroughly  done,  it  must 


202  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

be  alonely  done.  The  reason  is,  we  are  finite  creatures  ;  and  if 
two  things  be  done  at  once,  one  part  of  our  thoughts  will  be  taken 
from  the  other  :  we  cannot  wholly  intend  two  things  at  once."1 

Third,  Religion  must  have  fixed  times  for  its  teachings  and 
worship.  In  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  should  the  time  of  any 
matter  be  left  indefinite,  there  would  be  no  provision  for  its  being 
attended  to  at  all.  If  without  some  peremptory  arrangement,  many 
things  that  are  agreeable  to  us  would  be  forgotten,  what  would  be 
the  Me  of  those  to  which  we  are  disinclined  or  averse  ?  How 
constantly  would  the  excuse  be  made,  "  Go  thy  way  for  thia 
time  ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season  I  will  call  for  thee  ;"  and 
how  constantly  would  the  convenient  season  fail  to  come  !  It  is 
of  importance,  therefore,  that  times  for  the  duties  of  religion 
should  be  determined.  If  they  had  not  their  understood  days  and 
hours,  certain  religious  services  could  not  be  performed  at  all. 

Public  worship  is  a  becoming  as  well  as  prescribed  homage 
to  the  Great  King.  It  is  a  means  of  receiving  blessings  from 
heaven.  It  elevates,  purifies,  and  gladdens  human  hearts.  It  is 
a  proclamation  of  great  truths  to  the  world.  It  is  a  commemora 
tion  of  great  facts.  But  it  must  have  its  set  times.  The  time 
and  place  are  co-relative.  If  there  were  no  common  time,  there 
could  be  no  appointed  place.  "  Ye  shall  keep  my  Sabbaths  and 
reverence  my  sanctuary,  I  am  the  Lord,"  was  an  order  once  given 
from  the  court  above.  It  was  perfectly  in  keeping  that  when  an 
atheistical  people  abrogated  the  day,  they  should  proceed  forth 
with  to  desecrate  the  temples  of  religion. 

We  have,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  adverted  to  the  wisdom  and 
power  of  the  provision  whereby  the  preacher  applies  the  fruits  of 
study  to  general  advantage,  and  one  living  voice  can  reach  the 
ears,  and  thrill  the  hearts  of  many.  But  without  fixed  times  that 
voice  could  not  be  heard — those  fruits  could  not  be  distributed — 
there  could,  in  fact,  be  no  public  instruction. 

Family  religion  is  right  and  good.  But  we  believe  that  there 
would  be  no  such  thing  without  a  Sabbath.  Such  is  the  state  of 
society,  that  this  is  the  only  day  on  which  some  are  disposed,  and 
others  have  it  in  their  power  to  engage  in  family  prayer.  Take 
away  the  Sabbath,  and  while  one  class  would  be  without  the  im- 

1  The  Moral  Law  Expounded,  by  Bishop  Aiulrewes  (1642),  p.  328. 


MORAL  AND  EELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE  203 

pulse  which  the  regularly  returning  sacred  day  gives  to  domestic 
piety,  the  greater  number  would  be  in  the  situation  of  the  omni 
bus  men  in  London,  who,  never  seeing  their  children  except  when 
these  are  in  bed,  can  have  neither  the  inclination  nor  opportunity 
to  worship  with  or  instruct  their  families. 

Religion  consists  greatly  in  the  discharge  of  beneficent  offices 
beyond  the  circle  of  home.  But  take  away  the  Sabbath,  and  you 
cbsolutely  preclude  to  tens  of  thousands  the  advantage  and  plea 
sure  of  doing,  and  to  many  more  the  profit  of  receiving,  this 
species  of  good. 

Personal  religion  is  "  the  one  thing  needful."  But  its  attain 
ments  and  duties  are  next  to  impracticable  without  a  Sabbath. 
How  without  this  institution  would  men,  oppressed  with  toil,  and 
allured  by  temptations  to  drown  their  cares  in  sleep  or  intoxica 
tion,  feel  any  disposition  for  communing  with  their  own  hearts, 
with  their  Creator,  or  with  a  future  world  1  Is  it  not  true  that- 
many  do  not  call  on  the  Almighty,  or  study  the  truths  and  facts  of 
Christianity,  because,  keeping  no  holy  day,  they  are  continually 
immersed  in  business  or  in  worldly  pleasure  ?  It  is  sad  to  think 
that  those  who  might  redeem  one  day  in  seven  for  attending  to 
the  claims  of  God,  of  their  souls,  and  of  a  future  existence,  do  not 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity.  How  much  more  melancholy 
were  this,  from  the  want  of  a  Sabbath,  the  inevitable  condition  of 
all !  The  thought  will  intrude  amidst  the  most  incessant  occupa 
tions  and  bustle  of  life,  For  what  purpose  all  this  labour  1  For 
what  end  these  cares,  or  these  gratifications  1  Whither  am  I 
bound  ]  Where  shall  I  be  when  a  few  years  have  passed  away  ? 
Is  it  worthy  of  my  nature  to  be  ever  looking  down  to  this  earth, 
or  engrossed  with  the  present  1  These  thoughts  do  occur,  and  it 
is  irrational  to  seek  oblivion  of  them  in  mirth,  or  to  dispel  them 
by  courting  a  different  train  of  reflection.  If  the  impulses  of 
nature  suggest  repose,  the  dictates  of  conscience  demand  the  trial 
of  some  means  of  genuine  relief  to  remorse  and  apprehension. 
It  is  not  enough  to  have  the  season  of  night  for  a  pause  in  the 
perpetual  iteration  of  engagements,  for  that  requiring  physical 
rest,  admits  of  little  speculation.  There  must  be  a  Sabbath, 
unless  one  class  are  to  be  for  ever  bound  to  the  chariot-wheel  of 
labour,  and  another  so  continually  whirled  in  the  vortex  of  plea- 


204  ,  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

sure,  as  to  render  it  no  less  easy  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle  than  for  the  sons  of  men  to  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

Fourth,  The  time  must  regularly  and  frequently  recur ;  in 
short,  must  be  one  day  in  seven.  No  subject  can  be  properly 
studied,  no  art  acquired,  if  application  to  them  be  interrupted 
during  long  intervals.  Interest  is  impaired ;  lessons  are  for 
gotten  ;  habits  cannot  be  formed ;  and,  after  losing  time  and 
labour  the  professed  learner  has  in  the  end  accomplished  nothing. 
The  question  then  is,  What  is  the  necessary  frequency  of  time  for 
religion — the  time,  that  is,  which  its  more  deliberate  study,  and 
its  more  public  exercises  statedly  require  ?  We  answer,  the 
greatest  frequency  compatible  with  the  secular  and  spiritual  inter 
ests  of  mankind — in  other  words,  one  whole  day  in  every  seven. 
This  arrangement  being,  as  we  have  seen,  most  adapted  to  the 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  nature  of  man,  must  be  most  conson 
ant,  also,  to  his  religious  character — determining  the  proportion 
of  holy  time  which  is  most  conducive  to  his  temporal  advantage, 
and  which  thereby  enables  him  to  bring  the  greatest  amount  of 
health,  energy,  leisure,  and  comfort  to  bear  on  his  sacred  studies 
and  business. 

It  follows  from  the  preceding  statements  in  this  chapter  that 
religion  and  morality  will  flourish,  fade,  or  die,  according  as  a 
weekly  holy  day  is  observed,  perverted,  or  lost.  And  if  we 
show  that  such  is,  in  point  of  fact,  the  relation  of  religious  and 
moral  character  to  the  institution,  the  truth  of  our  thesis  is 
established. 

Let  it  be  remarked,  then,  that  where  the  Sabbath  is  duly 
honoured  and  observed,  religion  and  morality  prosper.  The  facts 
that  prove  this  position  are  too  numerous  to  be  particularized. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  early  Christians  ;  of 
the  Waldenses  ;  of  the  Puritans  in  England  and  America  ;  of  the 
Covenanters  and  Seceders  in  Scotland ;  of  the  evangelical  parties 
in  the  English  and  Scottish  Church  Establishments,  and  of  the 
converts  to  Protestant  Christianity  in  heathen  lands.  In  all  these 
cases,  without  exception,  a  vigorous,  purifying,  elevating  Chris 
tian  influence  has  been  exerted  in  connexion  with  a  devout,  sacred 
respect  for  the  Lord's  day. 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  205 

Let  it  be  observed,  further,  that  in  proportion  to  the  perversion 
of  the  institution  religion  and  morals  decline.  Hogarth,  like  him 
self,  is  true  to  nature,  when,  in  one  of  the  early  plates  of  the 
Series  of  Industry  and  Idleness,  he  represents  the  idle  apprentice, 
whose  course  ends  at  the  gallows,  as  gambling  on  a  Sunday  upon 
a  temb-stone  during  Divine  service.  The  downward  movement  in 
religious  creed  and  character  has  substantially  the  same  commence 
ment.  This  is  the  acknowledgment  of  almost  all  criminals.  It  is 
the  experience  of  many  others  not  yet  criminals  in  the  eye  of 
human  law — the  victims  of  a  state  of  society  which  they  cannot 
control,  and  which,  unnecessarily  and  wickedly  excluding  them 
from  places  of  worship,  soon  extinguishes  the  impressions  of  an 
early  religious  education.  And  good  men  confirm  these  testi 
monies  to  the  danger  of  tampering  with  a  benignant  yet  holy 
institute.  "  I  have  long  found  it  a  most  important  and  beneficial 
rule,"  says  Bickersteth,  "  to  give  the  Sabbath  to  God  as  entirely 
as  possible,  and  especially  to  spend  at  least  an  hour  or  two  alone. 
I  am  sure,  humanly  speaking,  all  religion  would  soon  be  gone 
from  me,  if  I  did  not  adopt  this  plan."1  The  corruption  of 
churches  begins  and  proceeds  in  the  same  way.  It  might  be  shown 
that  nothing  has  had  more  influence  in  debasing  the  Church  of 
Rome  than  the  holidays,  feasts,  and  ceremonies,  by  which  one 
after  another  of  the  associated  observances,  and  simple  benevolent 
provisions  of  the  Lord's  day  have  been  supplanted  and  neutralized. 
If  that  one  institution  had  been  preserved  in  its  integrity,  and 
unique  authority  as  a  sacred  day,  and  maintained  in  its  proper" 
accessories  of  a  pure  worship,  a  preached  gospel,  and  a  free  Bible, 
it  would  have  been  impossible  to  uphold,  if  not  to  introduce,  the 
domination  of  the  priesthood,  the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  Virgin 
and  of  the  mass,  the  abominations  of  celibacy  and  the  confessional, 
the  manifold  enormities,  in  short,  by  which  that  Church  has  made 
religion  an  object  of  contempt  and  disgust,  and  filled  the  greater 
part  of  Europe  with  ignorance,  poverty,  and  crime.  The  infidelity 
and  other  evils,  which  have  so  laid  waste  the  Protestant  churches 
on  the  Continent,  have  a  close  connexion  with  wrong  views  and 
practices  in  reference  to  the  Sabbath.  The  Reformed  and  Lutheran 
Churches,  particularly  the  former,  were  at  first  careful  to  maintain 

1  Memoir  of  Rev.  E.  Bicl:ersteth,  vol.  i.  p.  224 
10 


206  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  celebration  of  the  day,  but  the  example  of  Romanists  and 
infidels  around  led  to  a  gradual  departure  from  this  practice, 
which  was  abetted  by  certain  unguarded  expressions  of  the 
Reformers  tending  to  lower  the  claims  of  the  institution.  "  The 
evil  once  begun,"  says  Fairbairn,  "  proceeded  rapidly  from  bad  to 
worse,  till  it  scarcely  left  in  many  places  so  much  as  the  form  of 
religion." l  The  history  of  religion  in  England  is  rife  with  ex 
amples  of  similar  unhappy  effects  of  a  disregarded  or  maltreated 
Sabbath.  From  the  Reformation  downwards  to  the  present  time 
there  have  been  two  ecclesiastical  parties,  which  have*  been  dis 
tinguished  by  their  different  views  and  treatment  of  the  Lord's 
day,  and  which  have  in  consequence  displayed  an  equal  diversity 
in  religious  character  and  influence.  They  might  be  compared  to 
two  rivers — one  foul,  fierce,  and  desolating  as  the  Aar  ;  the  other, 
"  a  pure  river  of  water  of  life,  having  on  either  side  the  tree  of 
life,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations."  For  a  time 
the  one  or  the  other  may  almost  disappear,  or  their  waters  par 
tially  intermingle,  but  in  general  they  flow  on  in  separate  and 
parallel  currents.  The  Puritans  within  and  without  the  Church 
of  England  have  been  at  once  the  warm  friends  of  the  Sabbath, 
the  most  decided  Christians,  and  the  best  members  of  society. 
In  Scotland,  too,  the  periods  distinguished  by  the  profanation  of 
the  Lord's  day  have  been  precisely  the  periods  in  which  the  inter 
ests  of  religion  and  morality  have  sustained  the  greatest  damage, 
and  the  abettors  of  the  profanation  have  ever  been  identical  with 
the  ungodly  and  immoral. 

Let  it  be  observed,  once  more,  that  where  no  Sabbath  is  known, 
there  is  no  religion  or  virtue  at  all.  The  following  facts  are  suf 
ficient  to  confirm  the  statement.  The  great  majority  of  100,000 
men  employed  on  the  inland  navigation  of  England  are  deprived 
of  the  blessings  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  are  consequently,  with  their 
wives  and  children,  generally  speaking,  in  a  state  of  deplorable 
ignorance  of  the  gospel  and  of  the  power  of  religion.2  Baroi 
Gurney,  when  passing  sentence  of  death  on  two  boatmen  at  the 
Stafford  assizes,  said,  "  There  is  no  body  of  men  so  destitute  of 
all  moral  culture  as  boatmen  ;  they  know  no  Sabbath,  and  are 

1  Typology,  vol.  ii.  p.  475. 

2  Baylee's  Facts  and  Statistics,  p.  05. 


MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  INFLUENCE.  207 

possessed  of  no  means  of  religious  instruction."1  It  has  been 
said  that  no  class  of  men  are  more  frequently  before  the  magis 
trates  than  the  London  cab  and  omnibus  drivers,  who  are  employed 
every  day  from  thirteen  to  sixteen  hours  in  their  calling.  Habits 
of  intoxication  and  profane  swearing  prevail  to  a  great  extent 
amongst  both  classes  j  and  the  same  characteristic  attaches  to 
them  as  to  others  who  are  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  the  Lord's 
day,  namely,  demoralization  and  degradation.2  Mr.  Edge,  of  Man 
chester,  observes,  respecting  the  London  bakers,  that  "the  low 
mental  and  moral  condition  of  the  trade  generally  in  London  at 
the  present  time  is  notorious."3  Mr.  Henry  Ellis,  a  master 
baker,  says  of  them,  "  Those  good  and  moral  impressions  which 
they  first  received  in  their  early  days  are  entirely  lost,  from  the 
continual  practice  of  working  on  the  Sabbath  day."4  The  city 
and  metropolitan  police,  numbering  5000,  although  guardians  of 
the  public  peace,  as  a  body  live  almost  without  regard  to  religion, 
or  thought  of  another  world.5  In  four  years,  1849-1852,  54  of 
that  body  were  convicted  of  offences,  970  were  dismissed,  and 
524  were  suspended  ;  2495  were  fined,  64  were  reduced  in  rank, 
3151  resigned.  The  value  of  the  property  stolen  during  that 
period  was  £153,942,  of  which  £34,032  was  recovered.6  The 
want  of  a  day  of  rest  and  moral  training  is  found  to  corrupt  a 
class,  who  from  their  circumstances  in  life  might  be  expected  to 
rise  superior  to  deeds  of  villany.  We  refer  to  servants  in  our 
post-offices,  who  number  14,000,  and  labour  in  many  instances 
from  six  to  ten  or  even  twelve  hours  on  the  Sabbath.  It  is  stated 
in  a  Report  of  1843  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
that,  from  January  5,  1837,  to  January  5,  1842,  the  immense 
sum  of  £322,033,  contained  in  letters,  was  lost  in  passing 
through  the  post-office. 

Whatsoever,  therefore,  impairs  the  authority  of  a  sacred  resting 
day  tends  to  quench  virtuous  feeling,  and  to  obliterate  from  the 
world  the  truths,  laws,  and  blessings  of  religion.  In  referring  to 
the  public  teaching  of  Christianity  on  the  Sabbath,  Dean  Prideaux 

Baylee's  Facts  and  Statistics,  p.  64.  2  Ibid.  p.  84. 

Quoted  in  Address  on  the  Evils  of  Sabbath  Labour,  p.  11. 
Evidence  before  the  House  of  Commons'  Committee  in  1832,  p.  150. 
London  City  Mission  Report  (1845),  p.  24. 
Christian  Times  (1853),  p.  27f». 


208  ADVANTAGES  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

remarks,  that  "  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that  if  this  method 
were  once  dropped  among  us,  the  generality  of  the  people,  what 
ever  else  might  be  done  to  obviate  it,  would  in  seven  years 
relapse  into  as  bad  a  state  of  barbarity  as  was  ever  in  practice 
among  the  worst  of  our  Saxon  or  Danish  ancestors."1  If  along 
with  the  pulpit  the  Sabbath  itself  were  set  aside,  we  should  re 
quire  to  take  a  worse  state  of  society  than  that  to  represent  the 
woful  result.  The  weekly  day  of  rest  and  worship  may  in  some 
imperfect  form  survive  the  extinction  of  Christianity,  but  Chris 
tianity  has  never  existed  without  its  Sabbath.  Let  this  be  lost 
to  our  country  or  to  any  land,  and  the  religion  which  employs  it 
for  its  own  preservation  and  advancement  must,  with  all  the 
blessings  of  the  highest  civilisation,  disappear  along  with  it.  And 
it  is  lamentable  to  reflect  that  so  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Great 
Britain  are  employed  in  strenuous  endeavours  to  pull  down  that 
fabric  of  religion,  morality,  and  social  happiness,  which  by  means 
of  the  Sabbath  has  been  reared  and  consolidated  in  these  lands, 
and  which  has  for  centuries  been  no  less  the  envy  and  admiration 
of  the  world  than  the  blessing  and  glory  of  cur  people. 

»  Old  and  New  Testament  conn«:ted,  etc.  (1720),  part  L  p.  S3J. 


fcCONOMICAL  BEAEINGS.  209 


CHAPTEK    III. 

ECONOMY  OF  A  WEEKLY  HOLY  DAY. 

"  If  the  Sunday  had  not  been  observed  as  a  day  of  rest,  but  the  axe,  the  spade,  the 
anvil,  and  the  loom  had  been  at  work  every  day,  during  the  last  three  centuries,  I  have 
not  the  smallest  doubt  that  we  should  have  been  at  this  moment  a  poorer  people  and 
a  less  civilized  people  than  we  are."— LORD  MACAULAY. 

IT  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that,  while  the  multiplication  of  holi 
days  impoverishes  individuals  and  communities,  the  opposite  effect 
is  produced  by  a  weekly  day  of  sacred  rest.  The  labourer  receives 
the  same  amount  of  wages  for  his  six  days'  work  that  he  would 
receive  for  the  work  of  seven.1  The  institution,  therefore,  brings  to 
the  working  classes  once  in  the  week  a  clear  gain  of  a  resting 
day,  which  they  can  apply  to  the  husbanding  of  their  strength,  to 
the  cultivation  of  their  minds,  and  to  the  instruction  of  their 
families.  By  means  of  the  wise  and  merciful  appointment  of  a 
Sabbath,  they  are  enabled  to  spend  fifty-two  days  of  the  year 
most  profitably  to  their  own  interests,  physical,  mental,  and  moral, 
and  beneficially  in  various  ways  to  their  kindred  and  neighbours, 
not  only  without  lessening  the  amount,  but  with  the  effect  of 
enhancing  the  value  of  their  marketable  time. 

That  the  Sabbath  is  a  financial  benefit  is  manifest  from  its 
sanitary  power.  The  natural  result  of  the  more  uninterrupted 
health  and  greater  physical  strength  which  it  secures,  combined 
with  the  pleasure  and  hope  suffused  by  its  rest  over  the  engage 
ments  of  the  week,  is  an  increased  amount  of  human  labour  in 
every  grade  of  society.  Dr.  Farre  has  told  us  that  men  of  what 
ever  class  who  must  necessarily  be  occupied  six  days  in  the  week 
would,  in  the  course  of  life,  gain  by  abstinence  on  the  seventh. 
One  class  would  by  the  increased  vigour  imparted,  accpm- 

i  "  The  workmen  are  aware,  and  the  masters  in  many  trades  admit  the  fact,  that  were 
Sunday  labour  to  cease,  it  would  occasion  no  diminution  of  the  weekly  wages."— .K«jrorf 
on  tke  Sabbath  (1832),  p.  8. 

O 


210  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

plisli  more  mental  work. l  Every  student  would  find,  like  Hey  of 
Leeds,  that  the  complete  suspending  for  one  day  in  the  week  of 
all  his  secular  pursuits  would  prepare  him  to  "  resume  his  studies 
with  renewed  ardour  and  alacrity."2  The  lawyer  would  expe 
rience  a  greater  facility  in  transacting  business  on  the  Monday 
morning,  arid  would  feel  the  relief  afforded  by  a  weekly  day  of 
rest  to  be  beneficial  in  every  point  of  view.3  And  those  who  are 
called  labouring  men  would,  in  like  manner,  do  more  work.  To 
the  sentence  employed  as  our  motto,  Macaulay  adds,  "  Of  course 
I  do  not  mean  that  a  man  will  not  produce  more  in  a  week  by 
working  seven  days  than  by  working  six  days.  But  I  very  much 
doubt  whether,  at  the  end  of  a  year,  he  will  generally  have  pro 
duced  more  by  working  seven  days  a  week  than  by  working  six 
days  a  week,  and  I  firmly  believe  that  at  the  end  of  twenty  years 
he  will  have  produced  less  by  working  seven  days  a  week  than  by 
working  six  days  a  week."4  If  a  labourer  had  no  regular  day  of 
rest,  his  ability  for  exertion  would  continually  decrease.  For  a 
time  he  might  do  more  in  seven  than  in  six  days,  but  this,  as  a 
few  facts  will  make  certain,  could  not  continue  for  a  course  of 
years,  or  even  of  months.  Wilberforce,  writing  to  Christophe, 
king  of  Hayti,  October  8,  1818,  and  referring,  besides  other 
means  for  the  welfare  of  his  people,  to  the  proper  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  says,  "  I  well  remember  that  during  the  war,  when 
it  was  proposed  to  work  all  Sunday  in  one  of  the  royal  manufac 
tories,  for  a  continuance,  not  for  an  occasional  service,  it  was 
found  that  the  workmen  who  obtained  Government  consent  to 
abstain  from  working  on  Sundays  executed  in  a  few  months  even 
more  work  than  the  others."5  Similar  trials  were  made  in  the 
public  service  of  the  United  States  and  of  France,  and  the  prac 
tice  was  abandoned  in  both  instances  because,  from  less  work 
being  done,  it  was  not  profitable  to  the  state.6  Mr.  Bagnall, 
an  extensive  iron-master,  discontinued  the  working  of  his  blast 
furnaces  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  in  1841,  about  two  years  after 

1  Report  on  thr.  Sabbath  (1832),  p.  119. 

2  Life  ofW.  Hey,  Esq.,  F.R.S.    2d  Edit.  vol.  i.  p.  153. 

8  Evidence  of  James  Bridges,  Esq.,  in  Report  on  the  Sabbath,  p.  201. 

<  Speeches  (1854),  pp.  450,  451. 

«  Life  of  Wilberforce,  vol.  i.  p.  275. 

•  Permanent  Sabbath  Documents,  No.  I.  pp.  33,  34 


ECONOMICAL  BEARINGS.  211 

the  change  had  been  adopted,  stated  to  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  "  We  have  made  rather  more  iron  since  we  stopped  on 
Sundays  than  we  did  before."  After  a  seven  years'  trial  of  the 
plan,  Mr.  Bagnall  wrote  thus,  "  We  have  made  a  larger  quantity 
of  iron  than  ever,  and  gone  on  in  all  our  six  iron-works  much 
more  free  from  accidents  and  interruptions  than  during  any  pre 
ceding  seven  years  of  our  lives."  -1  Such  facts  as  these  prepare  us 
for  crediting  a  statement  which  has  been  made,  that  the  amount 
of  productive  labour  in  France  was  diminished  by  the  change  from 
a  seventh  to  a  tenth  day's  rest,2  and  for  rejecting  the  policy  of 
Arkwright  and  others,  which,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Egyptian  task 
masters,  and  of  slavery  wherever  found,  and  blind  no  less  to  the 
material  than  to  all  the  higher  interests  of  society,  would  cancel 
the  Sabbath  as  if  it  were  a  day  of  idleness  and  loss,  and  condemn 
the  great  majority  of  mankind  to  one  monotonous  course  of 
grinding  toil. 

The  arrangement  which  thus  secures  to  the  workman  every 
seventh  day  for  rest  and  mental  profit  without  any  pecuniary  loss, 
and  to  the  employer  a  larger  return  for  his  capital,  has  this  other 
great  advantage  to  both,  that  it  favourably  affects  the  quality  of 
labour.  Work,  in  the  circumstances  which  the  want  of  a  weekly 
day  of  rest  supposes,  must  be  carelessly  and  improperly  performed. 
It  is  observed  that  at  the  close  of  a  day's  employment  the  men 
become  less  efficient,  and  the  work  is  more  imperfect.  A  falling 
off  in  excellence,  as  the  consequence  of  exhaustion,  has  been 
noticed  also  in  literary  performances.  When  labour  is  continued 
over  the  Sabbath,  the  spirits  and  strength  flag.  A  steamer  on 
the  Thames  having  blown  up  some  years  ago,  the  foreman  and 
stokers  laid  the  blame  on  Sabbath  work,  which  "  stupified  and 
embittered  them,  made  them  blunder,  and  heedless  what  havoc 
they  might  occasion."  Mr.  Swan,  the  intelligent  superintendent 
of  machinery  to  the  Eastern  and  Continental  Steam  Packet 
Company,  states  that  when  the  engines  were  getting  constantly 
damaged,  the  mischief  was  instantly  repaired  by  giving  the  men 
the  rest  of  each  seventh  day.3  It  is  thus  evident  that  we  cannot 

1  Baylee's  Statistics,  ppr  88,  89. 

a  Spring's  Obligations  of  the  World  to  the  Bible  (Collins),  p.  215. 

»  Memorial  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Company. 


212  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

violate  the  laws  of  our  constitution  without  doing  injury  to  our 
selves  and  to  society.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  since  in  all  labour 
there  is  profit,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath — which,  by  its  influence  on  the  physical  frame,  enables 
labourers,  with  less  rather  than  greater  effort,  to  do  better  as  well 
as  more  work  than  they  could  otherwise  perform — must  contribute 
largely  to  the  increase  of  individual  comfort  and  of  the  national 
wealth.  One  important  item  in  the  gains  of  such  labourers  is  the 
saving  effected  by  them  in  many  instances  of  the  expenditure 
which  the  feebleness  and  disease  of  the  overtasked  and  the  un- 
rested  infallibly  entail. 

A  similar  profitable  result  to  that  produced  by  the  sanitary 
power  of  the  institution  might  be  expected  from  its  ascertained 
tendency  to  promote  intellectual  improvement.  "  Knowledge  is 
power,"  says  Bacon  ;  "  wisdom  is  better  than  strength,"  says  the 
wiser  Solomon.  It  is  the  mechanic  of  superior  intelligence  who 
may  be  expected  to  obtain  the  most  remunerative  employment, 
and  it  is  the  men  of  highest  acquirements  who  enjoy  the  best 
means  of  advancement  in  the  learned  professions. 

We  have  yet  to  mention  the  economic  benefit  of  the  Sabbath 
through  means  of  the  moral  and  religious  character  which  it  does 
so  much  to  form.  The  hand  of  the  diligent  maketh  rich,  while 
sobriety  and  care  husband.the  gains  of  industry.  Idleness,  on  the 
other  hand,  clothes  a  man  with  rags ;  and  vice,  the  most  unpro 
ductive  of  all  labour,  speedily  scatters  the  fortune  of  the  rich  and 
the  pittance  of  the  poor.  Nothing,  however,  secures  a  high  and 
abiding  morality  but  religion,  and  nothing  is  more  necessary  to 
the  preservation  and  influence  of  religion  than  its  weekly  holy  day. 
How  much,  to  say  no  more,  must  the  lessons  of  wisdom  and  the 
habits  of  order,  that  are  learnt  on  that  day,  help  to  guide  in  the 
use  of  all  time,  and  in  the  performance  of  every  work  !  "  I  know 
from  experience  that  persons  who  are  in  the  habit  of  attending  a 
place  of  worship  are  more  careful  in  their  pecuniary  transactions, 
they  are  more  careful  in  their  language,  they  are  more  economical 
in  their  arrangements  at  home,  they  are  more  affectionate  and' 
humane,  and  in  every  respect  superior  beings  by  far  than  persons 
of  contrary  habits.  Those  who  neglect  a  place  of  worship  gene 
rally  become  idle,  neglectful  of  their  person,  filthy  in  their  habit*. 


ECONOMICAL  BEARINGS.  213 

careless  as  to  their  children,  and  equally  careless  in  their  pecuniary 
transactions."1  The  want  of  the  Sabbath  in  France  prevented 
regular  industry  during  the  week ;  and  employers  in  this  country 
inform  us  that  their  servants  who  attend  a  place  of  worship  are, 
generally  speaking,  honest  and  diligent  men,  "never  losing  an 
hour  of  their  time,"  and  that  "  they  are  very  glad  to  get  hold  of 
such  men  ;  "  but  that  morality  is  obliterated  by  Sabbath  labour, 
and  that  they  have  been  compelled  to  discontinue  such  labour  in 
consequence  of  the  state  of  the  men,  who,  from  their  not  having 
proper  instruction,  could  not  be  trusted  with  anything.2  Inces 
sant  toil  of  itself  demoralizes  its  victims.  The  overtasked  resort 
to  stimulants,  and  the  delays,  interruptions,  waste,  and  injury 
occasioned  by  intemperate  habits,  must  involve  immense  loss  in 
various  ways  to  the  employers,  to  the  employed,  and  to  society  at 
large.  And  how  can  men  subjected  to  undue  labour  be  supposed 
to  care  for  the  interests  of  their  masters,  and  to  rise  above  the 
temptations  to  wrong  in  many  forms  those  whom  they  are  apt  to 
regard  as  treating  them  *with  severity  and  injustice  ?  But  give 
these  men  their  weekly  resting  day  at  least,  and  you  remove  some 
strong  inducements  to  improper  indulgences,  to  unfaithfulness,  and 
to  dishonesty.  Let  them  be  taught  to  respect  and  observe  the 
Sabbath,  and  much  more  will  be  accomplished  than  the  withdrawal 
of  the  occasions  of  vice  and  crime.  They  will  become  intelligent 
and  virtuous,  skilful,  industrious,  and  efficient,  temperate  and  eco 
nomical  ;  and  in  all  these  ways  they  will  promote  their  own  in 
terest,  benefit  their  employers,  and  add  largely  to  the  general 
amount  of  wealth. 

On  such  grounds  as  these  we  are  prepared  to  expect  that  a 
country  will  prosper,  and  individuals  be  well-to-do,  or  the  reverse, 
according  as  they  enjoy  or  want  the  enriching  influence  of  a  weekly 
holy  day.  Nor  are  we  disappointed. 

The  Popish  cantons  of  Switzerland,  with  their  numerous  festi 
vals,  are  poor  and  depressed  compared  with  the  Protestant  cantons. 
Italy  is  a  poor  country,  swarming  with  beggars  as  with  worse  than 
useless  priests.  In  Rome,  every  third  man  is  a  pauper.  In  Naples, 
out  of  a  population  of  380,000,  there  were  lately  220,000  with- 

1  Evidence  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Thomas,  Superintendent  of  Police,  in  Report  on  the  Sabbath, 
p.  S9.  3  ibid.  pp.  46,  104,  126,  1(50. 

10* 


214  ADVANTAGES  CF  THE  SABBATH. 

out  any  fixed  employment.  In  Spain,  3000  needy  relations  and 
dependants  are  maintained  on  the  estates  of  the  Duke  of  Arcos. 
Need  we  mention  Ireland,  where,  so  far  as  they  are  Roman  Catho 
lics,  the  people  are  as  destitute  of  the  comforts  of  life  as  they  are 
of  a  hallowed  day  ?  Not  long  before  the  commencement  of  the 
late  famine,  "  two-thirds  of  the  population  subsisted  on  potatoes, 
nearly  one-third  were  out  of  work  and  in  distress  thirty  weeks  in 
the  year,  and  one-eighth  were  paupers  or  on  the  verge  of  pauper 
ism.  The  merchant  was  poorer  than  the  English  clerk;  the 
farmer  would  have  been  thankful  for  the  food  which  servants  in 
England  threw  away."1  Mayo,  the  most  Popish,  is  also  the 
poorest  county  in  Ireland.  How  different  from  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Ireland  are  those  communities  which,  seeking  at  the  Divine  com 
mand  spiritual  riches  for  fifty-two  days  in  the  year,  have  the 
"  other  things  added  thereto,"  in  a  wealth  largely  accumulated  in 
particular  instances,  and  widely  diffused  among  the  population. 
We  see  one  example  in  the  United  States.  And  we  have  another 
in  Great  Britain,  where  the  periods  of  most  earnest  attention  to 
Christian  institutions  have  been  the  seasons  of  general  prosperity, 
and  where  the  chief  drawback  to  social  comfort  is  to  be  found  in 
the  pauperism,  losses,  and  public  burdens,  which  are  obviously, 
and  according  to  their  own  frequent  confession,  caused  by  men 
— many  of  them  not  natives — who  keep  no  sacred  Sabbath.2 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  component  parts  of  a  community  in 
which  the  Sabbatic  institution  is  known.  The  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain  may  be  divided  into  those  who  more  or  less  respect 
the  institution,  and  those  who  utterly  disregard  it.  We  need  not 
say  to  which  of  these  classes  the  greater  proportion  of  general 
worth  and  comfort  belongs.  When  we  view  them  again,  as  ar 
ranged  under  the  higher,  the  middle,  and  the  lower  orders  of 
society,  and  attend  to  their  comparative  regard  for  the  Sabbath, 
we  find  that  the  intermediate  are  the  most  distinguished  at  once 
by  their  observance  of  the  day,  and  by  their  prosperity.  If  we 
contemplate  the  population  of  our  land  according  to  their  employ 
ments,  we  discover  that  those  who  to  the  greatest  extent  trespass 

1  Dill's  Ireland? s  Miseries,  p.  11. 

2  The  average  income  of  every  person  in  Great  Britain  is  fully  three  times  £6  rant* 
aa  that  of  an  inhabitant  of  France.— Gold  and  tht  Gospel,  p.  232. 


ECONOMICAL  BEARINGS.  215 

in  their  callings  against  the  law  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  and  worship 
are  the  least  prosperous.  "  There  is  no  trade  that  we  are  aware  of 
that  violates  the  Sabbath  law  by  labour  so  much  as  the  bakers  do, 
and  no  trade  has  suffered  so  much  in  consequence.  A  rich  master 
baker,  who  has  got  his  wealth  by  the  profits  of  his  business,  is  a  rare 
thing  to  be  met  with.  There  are  more  journeymen  in  the  baking 
trade  who  are  decayed  masters  than  in  any  other." l  If  we  compare 
persons  in  the  same  profession  or  trade,  whether  in  America  or  in 
England,  the  result  will  not  be  different.  "  A  distinguished  mer 
chant  said  to  the  writer  of  this — <  There  is  no  need  of  breaking  the 
Sabbath,  and  no  benefit  from  it.  We  have  not  had  a  vessel  leave  the 
harbour  on  the  Sabbath  for  more  than  twenty  years.  It  is  alto 
gether  better  to  get  them  off  on  a  week-day  than  on  the  Sabbath. 
It  is  about  thirty  years  since  I  came  to  this  city ;  and  every  man 
through  this  whole  range,  who  came  down  to  his  store,  or  suffered 
his  counting-room  to  be  opened  on  the  Sabbath,  has  lost  his  pro 
perty.'  "  "An  old  gentleman  in  Boston  remarked,  *  Men  do  not 
gain  anything  by  working  on  the  Sabbath.  I  can  recollect  men, 
who,  when  I  was  a  boy,  used  to  load  their  vessels  down  on 
Long  Wharf,  and  keep  their  men  at  work  from  morning  to  night 
on  the  Sabbath-day.  But  they  have  come  to  nothing.  Their 
children  have  come  to  nothing.  Depend  upon  it,  men  do  not 
gain  anything  in  the  end  by  working  on  the  Sabbath.'  "2  "Do 
you  conceive  serving  on  a  Sunday  is  injurious  to  the  pecuniary 
interests  ? — I  see  it  by  most  tradesmen  round,  that  those  who  shut 
their  shops  on  the  Sunday  are  the  people  that  do  the  best."  3  In 
the  case  of  working  men  the  influence  of  the  Sabbatic  rest  and 
duties,  or  the  want  of  it,  appears  with  like  certainty.  When  it 
was  stated  before  the  Commons'  Sabbath  Committee  in  1832, 
that  certain  characters,  on  being  induced  to  respect  the  institution, 
began  to  procure  for  themselves  better  food,  and  to  refuse  aid 
from  the  poor-rates,  the  fact  was  not  a  rare  one.  There  is  not 
a  Christian  missionary  employed  in  instructing  the  neglected  in 
habitants  of  our  towns  who  cannot  relate  many  instances  of  the 
improved  funds,  diet,  and  dress,  that  very  speedily  attend  tho 

1  Address  on  the,  Evils  of  Sabbath  Labour,  p.  11. 

*  Permanent  Sabbath  Documents,  No.  I.  pp.  52,  56. 

*  Report  on  the  Sabbath,  p.  50 


216  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

resumption  of  religious  observances,  while  it  almost  as  invariably 
happens,  that  when  the  claims  of  public  worship  and  of  sacred 
time  cease  to  be  regarded,  there  commences  a  process  of  deteriora 
tion  alike  in  character  and  in  condition.  Many  such  facts  might 
be  presented,  but  we  must  limit  ourselves  to  two  other  cases  be 
longing  to  very  different  periods.  It  is  recorded  by  Calderwood 
that  in  the  congregation  of  Mr.  David  Black,  St.  Andrews,  which 
numbered  3000  communicants,  there  was  not  a  single  beggar  or 
Sabbath -breaker.1  "  There  is  not,"  says  a  working  man,  "  a  neigh 
bourhood,  village,  or  township  that  is  notable  for  its  profanation 
of  the  sacred  day  of  rest,  but  is  proverbial  for  its  poverty  and  its 
crime.  The  writer  is  acquainted  with  one  within  his.  own  imme 
diate  neighbourhood,  where  all  the  people  make  it  a  practice  to 
bake  their  bread  upon  the  Sabbath-day  for  the  sake  of  '  saving 
time  ;'  but  it  is  questionable  whether  there  is  another  village  in 
England  where  the  labouring  classes  have  got  so  little  bread  to 
bake.  Many  have  been  transported  and  imprisoned  within  the 
last  few  years  from  this  'dirty  poaching'  village  for  the  crimes  of 
arson  and  other  felonies."2 

Simply,  then,  as  a  commercial  or  pecuniary  matter,  it  is  for  the 
advantage  of  individuals  and  communities  to  observe  a  weekly  day 
of  rest.  Let  us  again  listen  to  the  eloquent  Macaulay  :  "  Rely  on 
it,  that  intense  labour,  beginning  too  early  in  life,  continued  too 
long  every  day,  stunting  the  growth  of  the  body,  stunting  the 
growth  of  the  mind,  leaving  no  time  for  healthful  exercise,  leaving 
no  time  for  intellectual  culture,  must  impair  all  those  high  quali 
ties  which  have  made  our  country  great.  ...  On  the  other  hand, 
a  day  of  rest  recurring  in  every  week,  two  or  three  hours  of  leisure, 
exercise,  innocent  amusement,  or  useful  study,  recurring  every  day, 
must  improve  the  whole  man  physically,  morally,  intellectually  ; 
and  the  improvement  of  the  man  will  improve  all  that  the  man 
produces."3 

1  Altar.  Damasc.  Ep.  Phil.  Vindic.  p.  65. 
a  Prize  Essays  by  Five  Working  Men,  p.  160. 
»  Speeches,  p.  451. 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY,  217 


CHAPTER  IV. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SABBATH  ON  THE  RESPECTABILITY 
AND  HAPPINESS  OF  INDIVIDUALS. 

"  They  who  always  labour  can  have  no  true  judgment ;  they  exhaust  their  attention, 
burn  out  their  candles,  and  are  left  in  the  dark." — BURKE. 

OUR  attention  has  been  occupied  with  the  evidence  which  ap 
pears  to  demonstrate  the  peculiarly  beneficial  bearings  of  the 
Sabbatic  institution  on  the  interests  of  health,  wealth,  intelligence, 
morality,  and  religion.  The  testimony,  however,  of  reason  and 
experience  to  the  practical  value  of  the  institution  would  be  in 
complete  without  some  consideration  of  still  further  results  which 
by  means  of  these  interests,  and  otherwise,  it  is  fitted  to  secure — 
results  in  personal,  domestic,  and  national  good. 

On  the  benefits  that  accrue  to  individuals  let  two  remarks 
suffice. 

First,  The  Sabbatic  institution  is  a  means  of  elevating  them  to 
true  respectability  and  honour.  Every  deduction  from  physical 
evil,  every  accession  to  mental  improvement,  and  especially  eveiy 
advance  in  piety  and  virtue — attainments,  as  has  been  shown,  all 
dependent  in  a  great  measure  on  the  Sabbath — are  so  many  con 
tributions  to  respectability  of  character  and  condition. 

A  man  to  be  in  his  proper  position  must  be  free.  It  is  cer 
tainly  unworthy  of  their  nature  that  human  beings  should  be  in 
the  situation  of  the  slaves  of  Cuba  or  the  Carolinas,  of  the  serfs 
in  Russia,  of  "the  puppets  of  the  Pope,"  or  of  the  men  and 
women  in  this  country  who  are  doomed  to  excessive  toil.  But 
degraded  above  all  is  the  man  who,  considering  himself  free,  is  the 
victim  of  his  guilt  and  passions,  of  his  prejudices  and  errors,  of 
his  fears  and  follies.  Such  a  state  of  things  is  the  source  of  all 
slavery.  What  but  sin  has  ever  made  one  class  of  men  tyrants, 


218  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATlf. 

and  another,  bondsmen  ?  All  attempts  at  human  aggrandizement 
must  fail  where  sin  continues  to  condemn  and  rule  human  beings. 
Without  peace  with  Heaven,  and  a  heart  that  loves  God  and  man, 
not  only  will  a  moral  vassalage  remain  which  no  form  of  civil  free 
dom  can  countervail,  but  its  bitter  fruits  in  abject  dependence  of 
all  kinds  will  continually  be  reaped.  And  what  has  ever  been 
found  capable  of  giving  liberty  to  such  captives  but  the  good  tid 
ings  of  Revelation  1 

11  He  is  the  freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 

And  all  are  slaves  beside  ; 

....  he  has  wings,  that  neither  sickness,  pain, 

Nor  penury,  can  cripple  or  confine. 

No  nook  so  narrow  but  he  spreads  them  there 

With  ease,  and  is  at  large." 

And  what  more  than  the  Christian  Sabbath  is  tributary  to  the 
knowledge  and  influence  of  the  expanding,  emancipating  truth  ? 
This  institution  is  an  essential  means  of  removing  the  cause  of  all 
bondage,  and  of  thereby  destroying  or  preventing  the  effects.  In 
its  absence  or  neglect  there  is  no  security  against  the  power  of  one 
class,  and  the  depression  of  another.  How  manifest  is  it  from  the 
principles  and  facts  set  forth  in  previous  chapters,  that  if  all  pos 
sessed  and  rightly  used  the  weekly  holy  day,  neither  the  oppressor 
nor  the  oppressed  could  exist  in  any  part  of  the  earth  !  It  is 
only  when  men  want,  or,  like  the  Jews,  despise  the  Sabbath,  that 
they  can  be  made  captives,  or  at  least  so  crushed  as  that  the  spirit 
of  liberty  shall  not  survive  and  struggle  till  it  win  for  itself  a  com 
plete  deliverance.  It  is  the  men  in  our  own  land  who  have  no 
regard  for  the  institution  that  subject  their  brethren  to  the  degra 
dation  of  perpetual  labour,  and  it  is  the  workmen  who  despise 
their  birthright  that  can  be  so  degraded.  The  employer  who 
values,  cannot  but  allow  his  servants  to  enjoy,  the  rest  of  every 
seventh  day,  as  he  respects  its  authority,  knows  its  advantages  to 
himself,  and  has  learned  by  its  means  to  honour  all  men,  and  to 
do  to  them  as  he  would  be  done  by  ;  and  the  labourer  or  me 
chanic  who  breathes  the  spirit  and  relishes  the  repose  of  the 
sacred  season,  who  has  been  taught  by  its  lessons  to  economize 
his  earnings  and  respect  himself,  will  be  prepared  to  negotiate 
from  a  higher  platform  with  the  dispenser  of  work  and  wages. 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY.  219 

Whatever  promotes  efficiency  in  the  business  of  life  contributes 
to  respectability  and  honour.  But  he  who  obeys  what  he  holds 
to  be  a  Divine  law  will  be  dutiful  to  men  ;  and  he  who  has  been 
physically  refreshed  by  the  rest,  and  morally  braced  by  the  in 
structions  of  the  Sabbath,  will  proceed  to  the  work  of  the  week, 
"  rejoicing  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race."  The  influences  which 
operate  so  favourably  from  week  to  week  on  his  whole  nature  and 
condition  impart,  as  the  united  result,  energy  to  his  character  and 
proceedings.  Some  of  the  most  remarkable  men  have  been  thus 
formed,  as,  for  example,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  who  said  that  if  in 
anything  he  excelled  others  it  was  by  virtue  of  his  power  of  ap 
plication,  which,  we  know,  was  invigorated  by  the  hebdomadal 
rest  and  worship  ;  and  Howard,  Wilberforce,  Clarkson,  Chalmers, 
and  Buxton,  none  of  whom  allowed  anything  to  bend  him  from 
the  great  purpose  of  his  life  and  soul,  and  all  of  whom  highly 
valued  the  Lord's  day.  The  early  Christians,  the  Keformevs,  the 
Puritans,  and  the  Covenanters  sanctified  the  Sabbath,  and  they 
were  the  most  resolute  of  men.  And  what  but  the  collective 
might  of  many  individuals,  nurtured  by  the  same  institution,  has 
imparted  an  activity,  enterprise,  and  determination,  beyond  all 
modern  nations,  to  Britons  and  Americans,  whose  energy  may  be 
read  in  reclaimed  wastes,  in  extending  commerce  and  civilisation, 
in  national  wealth  and  comfort,  in  the  cultivation  of  science  and 
letters,  and  even  in  the  prowess  of  the  battle-field  1 

The  man  who  is  the  object  of  respect  and  confidence  among  his 
fellows  has  attained  true  elevation  and  fame.  Need  a  word  be 
said  to  show  that  the  infidel,  the  irreligious,  and  the  immoral 
inspire  no  such  feelings  in  their  own  or  any  other  class  of  minds  1 
Voltaire,  who  must  be  allowed  to  have  been  free  from  temptation 
to  traduce  his  own  creed,  confessed  that  he  avoided  the  utterance 
of  infidel  sentiments  in  the  presence  of  his  servants,  lest,  adopting 
and  acting  on  them,  "  they  should  cut  his  throat."  No  less  well 
known  and  generally  believed  is  the  trust-worthiness  of  Christian 
men  of  all  ranks  who  are  observant  of  their  own  religious  insti 
tutions. 

Nothing  more  ennobles  a  human  being  than  the  combined  dis 
position  and  power  to  be  useful — to  be  one  of  the  world's  bene 
factors.  Every  one  who  "  labours,  working  with  his  hands  the 


220  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

thing  which  is  good,  that  he  may  have  to  give  to  him  that 
needeth,"  and  every  person  of  substance  and  influence  who  em 
ploys  them  for  good,  occupy  stations  which  the  general  voice  pro 
nounces  to  be  honourable.  And  these  "posts  of  honour"  are 
usually  rilled  by  the  men  who  are  distinguished  by  their  religious 
observances.  It  might  be  expected  to  be  so.  The  lessons  of 
benevolence,  of  brotherhood,  of  economy,  of  obligation  and  re 
sponsibility,  of  which  others  do  not  avail  themselves,  are  from 
week  to  week  set  before  them,  pressed  on  their  attention,  studied 
and  wrought  into  their  minds  ;  and  the  convocations  of  the  sacred 
day,  which  others  abjure,  bring  them  into  stated  impressive  inter 
course  with  their  neighbours  and  families,  give  them  a  deeper 
interest  in  both,  allay  prejudices  and  animosities,  and  continually 
remind  them  of  the  circumstances  and  claims  of  those  whom  but 
for  such  associations  they  would  but  slightly  regard,  or  entirely 
forget.  These  lessons  and  associations,  in  creating  a  desire  of  use 
fulness,  contribute  at  the  same  time  to  a  mental  and  moral  cha 
racter  which  is  necessary  to  give  one  power  over  others.  "  The 
writer  has  seen  a  town  and  neighbourhood  kept  in  peace  and  good 
order  at  a  time  of  high  political  ferment  by  the  influence  and 
mutual  co-operation  of  some  half-dozen  poor  men  who  observed 
and  kept  holy  the  Sabbath."1  If  it  were  not  for  a  day  of  dis 
engagement  from  ordinary  labour,  millions  would  be  precluded  not 
only  the  means  of  having  a  spirit  of  benevolence  formed  and 
cherished,  but  every  opportunity  for  its  exercise  in  their  own 
families  and  among  their  neighbours.  Let  the  Sabbath  cease,  and 
even  in  one  department  of  education  the  injury  would  be  vast  and 
irreparable.  As  the  greater  proportion  of  250,000  Sunday-school 
teachers  subsist  by  daily  labour,  their  self-improving  and  self- 
elevating  instructions  would  be  no  longer  possible,  multitudes  of 
children  would  be  destitute  of  their  sole  means  of  education,  and 
it  could  not  in  future  be  true,  that  "  thousands  of  the  working 
classes,  now  moving  in  a  respectable  sphere  of  life,  owe  their  posi 
tion  in  society  to  their  attendance  at  the  Sabbath-school."2 

Thus  it  is  that  the  great  ordinance  of  the  Sabbath  raises  a  man 
to  his  proper  place  in  society.  How  peacefully,  righteously,  and 
surely  does  it  accomplish  the  object !  No  violence,  disturbance,  01 

1  Prize  Essays  by  Five  Working  Men,  p.  142.  2  j^id  p.  87. 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY  221 

failure  attends  the  application  of  this  mighty  lever.  It  is  "  the 
cheap"  elevator  of  individuals  as  of  "nations."  Of  all  other 
schemes  for  advancing  a  person  to  respectability  and  honour  it.  may 
be  said  that  they  are  either  unrighteous,  or,  without  this  one,  in 
competent.  Secular  education  may  do  much,  but  mainly  as  the 
handmaid  of  moral  principle.  The  economy  and  industry  which  are 
not  guided  by  benevolence  and  wisdom,  will  either  fail  to  secure 
wealth,  or  amass  it  to  the  hurt  of  its  owner.  There  are  many  who 
attempt  to  raise  themselves  by  illegitimate  means,  but  they  cannot, 
as  they  ought  not  to  succeed.  Such  are  our  gamblers  of  various 
classes  ;  our  professional  men  who  deviate  from  their  line,  and 
make  haste  to  be  rich  by  foolish  speculations ;  our  fraudulent 
tradesmen,  and  those  working  men  who  squander  their  earnings 
on  their  appetites,  subject  themselves  to  continual  toil,  or  attempt 
to  force  the  price  of  labour.  The  disappointments  and  woes  that 
have  ever  followed  such  measures  are  incalculable.  Among  the 
working  classes  how  disastrous,  for  example,  has  been  the  last- 
named  expedient !  The  strike  of  the  Glasgow  cotton-spinners  in 
1837,  when,  besides  other  unjust  proceedings,  they  appointed  "  a 
persecuting  committee,  to  persecute  to  the  utmost"  their  recusant 
brethren,  lasted  for  seventeen  weeks  and  five  days,  and  ended  in 
tneir  "  giving  in,"  not,  however,  without  involving  unspeakable 
hardships  to  many  families,  a  fearful  increase  of  immorality, 
crime,  and  disease,  and  a  useless  expense  of  £194,540.  Similar 
were  the  termination  and  effects  of  the  Preston  strikes  of  1836 
and  1854  (the  latter  causing  a  total  loss  to  the  community  of 
£532,250);  of  that  among  the  Lanarkshire  colliers  in  1837, 
and  of  others  too  numerous  to  be  specified.  Let  us  attend  to  the 
wise  words  of  a  working  man,  whose  remarks  might  well  be 
pondered  by  persons  of  every  rank  :  "  We  have  listened  to  every 
nostrum,  and  tried  every  scheme  that  has  been  propounded  by 
every  demagogue,  and  set  forth  by  every  scribe  ;  we  have  wit 
nessed  great  changes  in  the  State  ;  we  have  seen  the  House  of 
Commons  reformed  ;  the  fiscal  code  revised,  and  restrictive  laws 
repealed  ;  we  have  expected  much  from  all  and  from  each  of  these 
great  changes  and  many  others.  But  our  hopes  have  not  been 
realized.  The  social  condition  of  the  working  classes  is  still  de 
plorable.  .  .  .  There  are  no  evils  to  which  we  are  subjected  but 


222  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  blessed  God  has  provided  a  remedy.  That  remedy  is  tho 
universal  obedience  to  his  laws,  one  of  the  most  emphatic  of  which 
is,  *  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy.'  "* 

Second,  The  Sabbath  is  eminently  conducive  to  personal  happi 
ness.  The  reverse  has  been  maintained  by  those  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  true  nature  of  the  institution,  and  prejudiced  or  inadvertent 
in  regard  to  the  condition  of  its  friends.  But  what  is  there  in 
the  institution  to  make  its  friends  unhappy  1  Ministering  to 
repose  and  health,  elevating  the  mind  by  connecting  it  periodically 
with  the  grandest  subjects  of  thought,  purifying  the  moral  feelings 
and  taste,  fostering  pious  sentiments  and  emotions,  affording 
opportunities  of  beneficence,  promoting  personal  prosperity,  and 
cherishing  the  domestic  intercourse  and  virtues,  the  Sabbath,  so 
far  from  being  the  cause  of  any  unhappiness,  appears  to  include  in 
itself  all  the  elements  of  the  highest  enjoyment. 

When  we  consider  the  pursuits  of  those  who  contemn  the  day 
of  sacred  rest,  we  shall  perhaps  discover  another  reason  for  con 
cluding  that  their  opinions  on  this  subject  must  be  erroneous. 
They  seek  after  secular  knowledge,  health,  pleasure,  fame,  and 
wealth,  respectively,  without  a  primary  regard  to  what  will 
"  minister  to  a  mind  diseased,"  or  satisfy  the  cravings  for  an  in 
finite  and  enduring  good.  How  is  it  possible  that  any  human 
being  can  be  happy  without  the  possession  of  blessings  that  will 
never  be  exhausted,  and  never  be  taken  away  1  He  who  attends 
to  the  votaries  of  such  pursuits  as  are  circumscribed  in  extent,  and 
limited  by  time,  or  who  has  reflected  on  his  own  feelings  in  fol 
lowing  the  same  course,  must  perceive  that  the  pleasure  enjoyed 
has  a  sting,  is  feverish,  and  demands  for  its  maintenance  constant 
excitement,  and  the  oblivion  of  certain  objects  and  questions  that 
have  not  been  duly  considered.  It  in  fact  proceeds  on  a  great  de 
lusion.  It  cannot  stand  adversity.  It  withers  under  the  look  of 
death.  Its  possessor  is  fain  to  banish  recollections  and  forebodings 
by  bustle,  movement,  company,  sleep,  inebriety,  and  not  rarely  by 
suicide.  This,  however,  is  the  pleasure  generally  of  the  men  who 
neglect  or  trample  upon  sacred  institutions.  That  they  should  con 
ceive  the  Sabbath  to  be  a  gloomy  appointment,  *md  its  friends  to  be 
unhappy,  is  not  wonderful.  They  have  formed  their  views  of  plea- 

1  Prize  Essays  by  Five  Working  Men,  pp.  130,  131. 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY.  223 

sure  by  the  low  standard  of  their  own  desires,  appetites,  and  tastes, 
and  according  to  a  common  deception  in  moral  optics,  transferred 
to  others  the  misery  which  exists  only  in  their  own  spirits. 

We  are  not,  however,  left  to  principles  and  reasonings  as  the 
sole  means  of  deciding  whether  the  institution  be  conducive  or 
not  to  personal  happiness.  The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.  So 
happy,  according  to  all  our  observation,  are  the  majority  of  our 
acquaintance  and  friends  who  keep  the  Sabbath,  that  we  are  dis 
posed  to  impute  the  very  few  exceptions  either  to  disease  or  to  a 
want  of  religion.  And  the  observation  is  in  harmony  with  the 
history  of  the  class,  ancient  and  modern.  Unhappiness  is  the 
exceptional  case,  which  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  the  exponent 
of  Sabbatic  tendencies.  No  class  were  happier  beings  than  the 
early  Christians,  and  their  Sabbath  was  their  most  joyful  day. 
Asceticism  was  of  Pagan  origin,1  and  gained  ground  among  Chris 
tians  in  proportion  as  their  doctrines  and  institutions  were  cor 
rupted  by  foreign  admixtures.  The  Reformers  were  not  gloomy 
men  ;  nor  were  the  Puritans  as  a  body,  although  they  have  been 
so  maligned.  They  received  treatment  at  one  time  enough  to 
drive  less  resolute  spirits  to  distraction,  and  at  another  they  had 
an  Augean  task  to  perform  requiring  stern  severity.  But  we  ven 
ture  to  affirm  that,  where  that  assumed  its  harshest  features,  it 
was  among  the  pretended  friends  of  the  new  dynasty,  who  bounded 
so  suddenly  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  licentiousness  at  the  Resto 
ration.  We  may  estimate  the  character  of  the  Puritans  with  con 
siderable  accuracy  from  that  of  their  leading  men.  The  following 
is  the  account  given  of  Owen  : — "  He  was  very  affable  and  cour 
teous,  familiar  and  sociable  ;  the  meanest  persons  found  easy 
access  to  his  conversation  and  friendship.  He  was  facetious  and 
pleasant  in  his  common  discourse,  but  with  sobriety  and  measure. 
He  was  of  a  serene  and  even  temper,  neither  elated  with  honour, 
credit,  friends,  or  estate,  and  not  easily  depressed  with  troubles 
and  difficulties."2  What  superiority  to  the  depressing  influence 
of  adversity  must  he  have  attained  who  could  compose  his  noblest 
and  most  laborious  works  amidst  the  turbulent  elements  of  the 
Commonwealth,  when  concealing  himself  for  safety,  or  when  racked 

1  Neander's  Church  History,  vol.  i.  p.  375. 

2  Life  of  Owen,  by  Orme,  pp.  349,  350. 


224  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

with  the  stone  ! 1  Rogers  thus  describes  Howe — "  He  had  nothing 
either  of  the  anchorite  or  ascetic  in  his  composition  ;  dignified 
but  not  austere,  he  was  grave  without  moroseness,  and  cheerful 
without  levity."2  "The  benevolence  of  Charnock,"  says  Calamy, 
"  was  universal,  and  his  love  took  in  whatever  person  OF 
thing  had  anything  lovely  in  it."3  Who  can  doubt  that  Char 
nock  must  have  been  a  happy  man  ?  It  is  mentioned  by  the 
same  writer  that  Bates's  "  wit  was  never  vain  or  light,  but 
most  facetious  and  pleasant."4  Of  Gouge,  who  went  about 
continually  doing  good,  Baxter  said,  "  He  never  saw  him  sad, 
but  cheerful."5  It  was  the  remark  of  a  heathen  philosopher, 
that  no  man  could  be  called  happy  before  death.  The  biographies 
of  many  of  the  Puritans  record  their  blessedness  not  only  during 
life,  but  in  the  immediate  prospect  of  dissolution.  Among  Baxter's 
last  words  were  these — "  I  bless  God  I  have  a  well-grounded 
assurance  of  my  eternal  happiness,  and  great  peace  and  comfort 
within."  «  Almost  well." 

These  were  some  of  the  most  noted  of  the  Puritans  at  the  time 
to  which  the  charge  in  question  has  been  chiefly  applied.  Many 
more  of  the  same  class  of  men  who  lived  then  and  previously 
might  be  cited  in  proof  that  their  religion  did  not  "  make  their 
pleasures  less."  Their  friends,  who  emigrated  to  America  at  dif 
ferent  times,  were  persons  of  the  same  pious  and  cheerful  spirit. 
Such  also  were  the  descendants  of  these  expatriated  Puritans. 
After  remarking  the  sobriety,  the  industry,  the  suppression  of 
crime,  the  total  absence  of  beggary,  the  general  diffusion  of  edu 
cation,  and  the  patriotic  spirit,  which  distinguished  New  England 
towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Grahame  observes 
— "  Yet  this  state  of  society  was  by  no  means  inconsistent  either 
with  refinement  of  manners,  or  with  innocent  hilarity.  Lord 
Bellamont  was  agreeably  surprised  with  the  graceful  and  courtly 
demeanour  of  the  gentlemen  and  clergy  of  Connecticut,  and  con 
fessed  that  he  found  the  aspect  and  address  that  were,  thought 
peculiar  to  nobility,  in  a  land  where  this  aristocratical  distinction 
was  unknown.  From  Dunston's  account  of  his  residence  in  Boston 
in  1686,  it  appears  that  the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  were  at 

Life  of  Owen,  p.  352.  2  nfe  ofjohn  Howe,  by  Henry  Rogers,  pp.  494,  504. 

*>  Abridgment,  vol.  ii.  p.  56.        <  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  49.  «  iud.  vol.  ii.  p.  11. 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY.  226 

that  time  distinguished  in  a  very  high  degree  by  the  cheerfulness 
of  their  manners,  their  hospitality,  and  a  courtesy,  the  more  estim 
able  that  it  was  indicative  of  real  benevolence."1  Were  it  neces 
sary,  the  connexion  between  a  strictly  observed  Sabbath,  and 
every  appearance  of  true  peace  and  joy,  might  be  traced  down  to 
the  present  day,  in  the  lives  and  deaths  of  such  men  as  Henry, 
Hervey,  John  Newton,  Bickersteth,  with  many  others,  who  all 
proved,  by  the  alacrity  with  which  they  performed  the  duties  of 
religion,  and  by  their  whole  deportment,  that  they  experienced 
wisdom's  "  ways  to  be  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  to 
be  peace." 

Let  us  present  the  following  beautiful  tributes  of  two  eminent 
men  to  the  character  of  Wilberforce.  "  I  never,"  says  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  "  saw  any  one  who  touched  life  at  so  many  points  ; 
and  this  is  the  more  remarkable  in  a  man  who  is  supposed  to  live 
absolutely  in  the  contemplation  of  a  future  state.  When  he  was 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  seemed  to  have  the  freshest  mind  of 
any  of  those  there.  There  was  all  the  charm  of  youth  about  him, 
and  he  is  quite  as  remarkable  in  this  bright  evening  of  his  day,  as 
when  I  saw  him  in  his  glory  many  years  ago."  "  I  never,"  says 
Southey,  "  saw  any  other  man  who  seemed  to  enjoy  such  a  per 
petual  serenity  and  sunshine  of  spirit.  In  conversing  with  him 
you  feel  assured  that  there  is  no  guile  in  him  ;  that  if  ever  there 
was  a  good  man  and  a  happy  man  on  earth,  he  was  one." 
"  There  is,"  the  same  individual  remarks,  "  such  a  constant  hilarity 
in  every  look  and  motion,  such  a  sweetness  in  all  his  tones,  such 
a  benignity  in  all  his  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  that  you  can 
feel  nothing  but  love  and  admiration  for  a  creature  of  so  happy 
and  blessed  a  nature."2 

The  strictest  views  and  practice  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath  are 
thus  found  to  be  compatible  with  pleasure,  and  so  commonly 
associated  with  it  as  to  warrant  us  in  regarding  them  as  cause  and 
effect.  This  conclusion  derives  confirmation  from  the  biographies 
of  many  ardent  friends  of  the  institution,  which  exhibit  them  as 
persons,  not  only  of  happy  temperament,  at  all  times,  but  especially 
so  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Venn,  author  of  The  Complete 

1  History  of  Hie  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  U.  S.  ofN.  America,  vol.  i.  pp.  504,  505. 
*  Life  of  Jay,  9d  edition,  p.  321. 

F 


226  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

Duty  of  Man,  says,  "  My  Sabbaths  are  sweet  to  my  soul."1  Hey 
of  Leeds  informs  us  that  in  early  life  his  Sabbaths  were  his  hap 
piest  days,  and  that  in  later  life  he  conceived  that  this  day  should 
be  begun,  carried  on,  and  concluded  with  holy  cheerfulness.2 
Philip  Henry  would  sometimes  at. the  close  of  the  Sabbath-day 
duties  remark,  "  Well,  if  this  be  not  the  way  to  heaven,  I  do  not 
know  what  is."3  That  day  must  have  been  "  a  delight  "  to  Wil- 
berforce.  "  0  blessed  day,"  he  says,  "  which  allows  us  a  precious 
interval  wherein  to  pause,  to  come  out  from  the  thickets  of  worldly 
concerns,  and  to  give  ourselves  up  to  heaven  and  spiritual  objects. 
And,  oh  !  what  language  can  do  justice  to  the  emotions  of  grati 
tude  which  ought  to  fill  my  heart,  when  I  consider  how  few  of 
my  fellows  know  and  feel  its  value  and  proper  uses.  Oh,  the 
infinite  goodness  and  mercy  of  my  God  and  Saviour  !"4  Of 
Henry  Martyn  it  is  said,  that  "  the  Sabbath,  that  sacred  portion 
of  time  set  apart  for  holy  purposes  in  paradise  itself,  was  so  em 
ployed  by  him  as  to  prove  frequently  a  paradise  to  his  soul  on 
earth,  and  as  certainly  prepared  him  for  an  endless  state  of 
spiritual  enjoyment  hereafter."5  Another  thus  writes,  "Every 
day  was  a  day  of  tranquil  satisfaction,  in  which  we  had  little  to 
wish  and  much  to  enjoy  :  but  the  Sabbath  presented  us  with 
peculiar  consolations.  We  saluted  every  return  of  that  holy  day 
with  undissembled  joy,  cheerfully  laying  aside  all  our  usual  studies 
and  employments,  except  such  as  had  a  manifest  tendency,  either 
to  enlarge  our  acquaintance  with,  or  to  advance  our  preparation 
for,  the  kingdom  of  God." 

After  quoting  from  Gilpin's  Monument  of  Parental  Affection 
the  beautiful  passage,  of  which  the  preceding  words  are  a  part,  a 
writer  asks,  "  Where  shall  we  find  in  scenes  of  worldly  mirth  or 
amusement  anything  that  can  furnish  such  a  rational  and  exalted 
source  of  enjoyment,  and  which  will  so  well  bear  the  retrospect, 
as  in  this  T6  Certainly  not  among  those  of  the  upper  classes  to 
whose  round  of  gaieties  the  day  of  rest  brings  hardly  any  inter 

1  Lift  of  Venn,  4th  edition,  p.  468. 

2  Life,  2d  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  153,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  64.  Life,  by  his  Son,  ch.  viii. 
*  Life,  vol.  iii.  pp.  96,  97.                                                   »  Memoir  (1828),  p.  479. 

•  *  Dr.  Inncs  (Tract  for  the  Tines,  p.  9),  himself  an  example  of  cheerful  piety  through 
out  a  long  life.  *• 


CONNEXION  WITH  PERSONAL  PROSPERITY.  227 

ruption,  for  ennui  is  their  own  common  and  appropriate  name  for 
their  feelings ;  nor  among  those  of  the  middle  and  lower  ranks, 
who  work  every  day,  or  spend  the  first  day  of  the  week  in  amuse 
ment  ;  for  their  languid  appearance,  their  abbreviated  lives,  their 
sullenness,  irritability,  and  frequent  resort  to  stimulants,  tell  a 
very  different  tale.  There  have  been  many  such  confessors  as 
Colonel  Gardiner,  Gibbon,  and  Lord  Byron.  Colonel  Gardiner 
said  that  when  he  appeared  to  his  boon  companions  to  be  the 
most  joyous  of  men,  he  was  in  reality  so  miserable  as  to  wish  he 
were  the  dog  under  the  table.  Byron,  we  presume,  "  held,"  as 
was  his  wont,  "  the  mirror  up  to  nature,"  when  he  wrote  these 
Words  in  Childe  Harold  : — 

"  It  is  that  weariness  which  springs 

From  all  I  meet,  or  hear,  or  see : 

To  me  no  pleasure  Beauty  brings ; 

Thine  eyes  have  scarce  a  charm  for  me. 

"  It  is  that  settled,  ceaseless  gloom 

The  fabled  Hebrew  wanderer  bore  ; 
That  will  not  look  beyond  the  tomb, 
But  cannot  hope  for  rest  before." 

And  Gibbon,  after  referring  to  the  "  autumnal  "  as  by  some 
deemed  the  happiest  season  of  a  literary  life,  has  this  sad  reflection 
— "  But  I  must  reluctantly  observe  that  two  causes,  the  abbrevia 
tion  of  time  and  the  failure  of  hope,  will  always  tinge  with  a 
bro<vner  shade  the  evening  of  life."  (Life,  1837,  p.  117.) 
How  different  the  Christian  ! ,  Eeligion  proves  its  superiority  to 
nature  and  philosophy  by  painting  its  bright  bow  in  the  clouds  of 
adversity  in  the  noon-tide  of  his  day,  and  by  fulfilling  to  him  at 
its  close  the  words,  "  at  evening  time  it  is  light." 

"  I  may  not  tread 

With  them  those  pathways — to  the  feverish  bed 
Of  sickness  bound  ;  yet,  0  my  God  !  I  bless 
Thy  mercy,  that  with  Sabbath  peace  hath  filled 
My  chastened  heart,  and  all  its  throbbings  stilled 
To  one  deep  calm  of  lowliest  thankfulness."  x 

*  SattatJi  Sonnet,  Mrs.  Hemans'  Works  XI 830),  voL  vii.  p.  286. 


228  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 


CHAPTER  V. 

DOMESTIC  BENEFITS  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"  A  peculiar  blessing  may  be  expected  upon  those  families  where  there  is  due  caio 
taken  that  the  Sabbath  be  strictly  and  devoutly  observed. " — JONATHAN  EDWARDS. 

THE  diversities  in  the  domestic  life  of  various  countries  and 
times  have  generally  turned  on  the  place  assigned  to  woman. 
Her  equality  to  man  in  all  that  is  most  important  and  enduring 
entitles  her  to  his  companionship,  and  while  her  feebler  frame 
calls  for  his  protection,  her  gentler  and  more  patient  spirit  qualifies 
her  for  rendering  to  him  the  sympathy  and  help  which  he  requires. 

"  When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brew, 
A  ministering  angel  them  !" 

But  although  thus  fitted  to  be  his  associate  and  friend,  and  be 
longing  to  a  sex  nearly  as  numerous  as  his  own,  it  is  but  rarely 
that  she  has  obtained  her  just  rights,  and  that  the  world  has  fully 
availed  itself  of  her  salutary  influence.  It  is  only  in  the  Bible 
that  her  claims  are  clearly  and  authoritatively  ascertained  ;  it  is 
only  as  the  Bible  is  known  and  believed  that  these  claims  are 
practically  recognised,  and  that  Milton's  glowing  lines  are  seen  to 
be  a  picture  of  life  : 

"  Hail,  wedded  love,  mysterious  law,  true  source 
Of  human  offspring ;  sole  propriety 
In  paradise  of  all  tilings  common  else 
By  thee,  adulterous  Lust  was  driven  from  men 
Among  the  bestial  herds  to  range:  by  thee 
Founded  in  reason,  loyal,  just,  and  pure, 
Relations  dear,  and  all  the  charities 
Of  father,  son,  and  brother,  first  were  known. 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  229 

Far  be  it,  that  I  should  write  thee  sin,  or  blame, 
Or  think  thee  unbefitting  holiest  place, 
Perpetual  fountain  of  domestic  sweets."1 

In  countries,  accordingly,  where  justice  and  kindness  rule  the 
relation  of  the  sexes,  we  discover,  in  beautiful  combination,  pure 
religion  and  morals,  high  intelligence  and  civilisation,  general 
wealth,  and  a  large  amount  of  happiness.  Wherever,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  relation  has  been  superseded  by  prevalent  poly 
gamy,  or  other  substitutes,  and  wherever  influences  have  exten 
sively  operated  tending  to  relax  and  sever  what  ought  to  be  a  secure 
and  life-long  tie,  the  laws  of  nature,  reason,  and  justice  have  been 
violated,  woman  has  been  degraded,  and  man  in  all  his  interests, 
physical,  intellectual,  moral,  and  social,  has  necessarily  sunk  along 
with  her.  The  family,  that  sanctuary  of  infancy,  that  earliest 
and  best  school  of  piety,  wisdom,  and  virtue,  that  retreat  of  toiled 
and  weary  man,  that  dearest  asylum  to  the  sorrowful,  the  sick, 
and  the  dying,  has  been  dissolved,  or  never  known.  There  is 
wanting  the  "  humble  hearth-stone,  which  is  the  corner-stone  of 
the  temple,  and  the  foundation-stone  of  the  city."  Whatever, 
therefore,  serves  to  form  or  to  uphold  the  true  family  institution 
must  be  an  unspeakable  boon  to  the  world.  To  this  object  the 
Sabbath  conduces,  and  is  even  indispensable,  as  will  appear,  we 
conceive,  from  the  following  statements  of  facts  and  principles : — • 

1.  We  shall  look  in  vain  for  a  true  and  happy  home  in  those 
places  where  no  weekly  holy  day  exists,  or  where  its  advantages 
cannot  be  enjoyed.  In  the  lands  of  Paganism,  the  relation  of 
the  sexes  has  been  debased  by  polygamy  in  some  instances,  by  the 
facility  and  frequency  of  divorce  in  others,  and  by  the  depression 
of  woman  in  all.  What  the  domestic  circumstances  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  latterly  were  may  be  conceived  from  the  fact,  that 
in  Athens  and  Borne  "  impurity  was  considered  neither  as  an 
offence  nor  as  a  dishonour."  China  is  honourably  distinguished 
by  the  filial  reverence  and  attachments  of  its  people,  to  which  may 
possibly  be  ©wing  the  "  long  life  "  and  comparative  "  prosperity  " 
of  the  empire  ;  but  deplorable  must  be  the  state  of  families  in 
a  country  where  the  wife  is  the  victim  of  the  husband's  caprice  and 
tyranny,  where  concubinage  is  permitted,  and  where  the  father  has 

1  Paradise  Lott,  Book  iv. 
11 


230  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

power  over  the  life  of  his  child.  The  history  of  slave  colonies, 
and  the  condition  of  many  servants  amongst  ourselves,  show  that 
the  Sabbath  may  have  a  place  in  the  laws  and  calendar  of  a  nation, 
and  yet  to  certain  classes  bring  no  pause  of  toil,  and  yield  no 
benefit.  In  slave  colonies,  the  demand  of  every-day  labour,  the 
neglect  to  legalize  marriage,  and  the  most  unrestrained  licentious 
ness,  have  gone  hand  in  hand,1  while  among  certain  classes  of 
servants,  as  the  cabmen  of  London,  who  labour  on  all  days  for 
sixteen  or  eighteen  hours,  it  is  found  that  not  a  few  live  with  the 
lowest  class  of  females  in  an  unmarried  state,  and  that  their 
abodes  are  ordinarily  scenes  of  wretchedness  and  destitution.2  To 
the  wellbeing  of  the  family,  therefore,  some  Sabbath  appears  to 
be  indispensable. 

2.  Nor  is  domestic  life  virtuous  or  comfortable  where  the 
weekly  day  of  rest  stands  connected  with  a  false  or  an  impure  re 
ligion.  The  people  of  Guinea  dedicate  one  day  in  the  week  to 
the  honour  of  their  idols.  But  what  avails  for  their  domestic 
advantage  a  day  which  is  associated  with  demon-worship,  with 
human  sacrifices,  and  with  the  belief  that  women  are  slaves,  who 
must  compensate  by  their  labour  for  the  price  of  their  purchase  ? 
The  Mohammedans  and  the  Mormons,  in  common,  keep  a  Sabbath, 
follow  impostors,  add  to  the  Bible  a  so-called  new  revelation  from 
heaven,  debase  woman,  and  practise  polygamy.  The  fruits,  in 
both  cases,  are,  accordingly,  licentious  manners  and  social  degra 
dation,  the  former  class  being  sunk  in  "  apparently  irremediable 
barbarism,"  and  the  latter  obviously  ripening  for  destruction. 
Popery  has  freely  imitated  Paganism,  but  it  has  surpassed  its 
prototype  in  this,  with  other  particulars,  that,  corrupting  the  wife 
and  dishonouring  the  husband,  it  has  humbled  both.  Let  French 
writers  say  how  it  is  with  the  family  in  France.  One  relates  that 
"  six  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  girls  are  educated  by  nuns, 
under  the  direction  of  the  priests,  and  that  these  girls  will  soon 
be  women  and  mothers,  who,  as  far  as  they  are  able,  will  deliver 
their  sons  and  daughters  into  the  hands  of  the  priests,"  adding, 
"  Young  man,  you  must  ask  of  the  priest  the  hand  of  the  maiden 
before  applying  to  her  parents.  .  .  .  Poor  man  !  you  will  have 

1  Negro  Slavery,  C.  Observer  (1826),  p.  679. 

3  Baylee,  p.  81,  and  Tenth  London  City  Mission  Report,  p.  18. 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  231 

a  wife  minus  her  heart  and  soul ;  and  you  will  learn  by  experience 
that  he  who  gave  her  to  you  on  such  terms,  knows  well  how  to 
resume  his  sway  over  her."1  Another  remarks,  "In  France  we 
are  obliged  to  use  a  periphrase,  as  if  we  were  strangers  to  the 
thing  :  the  home  of  England  and  the  chez-soi  of  France." 2  It  is 
not  long  since  some  of  the  leading  men  in  that  country,  alarmed 
at  the  effects  of  the  prevalent  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day  among 
the  people,  united  in  an  attempt  to  stay  the  plague.  One  of 
them,  Baron  Augustin  Cauchy,  a  member  of  the  French  Institute, 
wrote  on  the  occasion  in  these  strong  terms  :  "  Wherever  a  nation 
fails  to  keep  this  commandment  [respecting  the  Sabbath],  Chris 
tianity  ceases  to  exist.  There  would  then  be  an  end  to  domestic 
life,  to  family  ties  ;  and  civilisation  would  soon  be  succeeded  by 
barbarism."3  In  Spain,  there  is  no  holy  Sabbath.  The  first  day 
of  the  week  is  the  great  day  for  the  theatre,  and  particularly  for 
the  bull-fight,  which  is  patronized  by  royalty,  the  nobility,  and 
the  priesthood. 

"  The  Sabbath  comes,  a  day  of  blessed  rest ; 

What  hallows  it  upon  this  Christian  shore  ? 
Lo !  it  is  sacred  to  a  solemn  feast : 

Hark  !  heard  you  not  the  forest  monarch's  roar?" 
The  poet  proceeds  to  describe  the  scene,  where 

"  Yells  the  mad  crowd  o'er  entrails  freshly  torn, 

Nor  shrinks  the  female  eye,  nor  ev'n  affects  to  mourn." 
And  adds  : 

"  Such  the  ungentle  sport  that  oft  invites 

The  Spanish  maid,  and  cheers  the  Spanish  swain. 
Nurtured  in  blood  betimes,  his  heart  delights 
In  vengeance,  gloating  on  another's  pain. 
What  private  feuds  the  troubled  village  stain!"4 

In  harmony  with  such  amusements,  such  a  Sunday,  and  such  a 
priesthood,  is  the  disorganized  state  of  the  family  and  of  general 
society  in  Spain,  where  every  man  must  wear  a  weapon  ;  where 
the  most  petty  journey  requires  the  preparation  of  a  warlike  en- 

1  Priests,  Women,  and  Families  (1846),  pp.  61,  62. 

»  Roussel,  Catholic  and  Protestant  Nations,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 

»  Letter,  in  My  Connexion  with  the  Sabbath  Movement  in  France,  by  C.  Cochraao. 

«  Ck&de  Harold,  cant  i.  st.  68-80. 


ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

terprise  ;a  and  where  "  every  town  has  its  Casa  de  Expositos,  that 
of  Seville  alone  (seven-tenths  or  seven-ninths  of  whose  inhabitants 
are  entire  strangers  to  religious  ordinances)  having  nearly  1100 
poor  infants  thrown  upon  its  care  every  year,  to  which  must  be 
added  that  the  mortality  of  that  class  is  tremendous,  and  the  real 
amount  of  infanticide,  owing  to  the  general  licentiousness  of  the 
people,  is  incalculable."2  But  we  must  revert  for  a  moment  to 
France,  which  at  one  time  exchanged  Popery  for  Atheism,  the 
Sabbath  for  the  Decade.  The  experiment  showed  that  infidelity 
was,  even  more  than  a  corrupt  religion,  detrimental  to  the  family. 
What  the  institution  suffered  from  the  worship  of  a  strumpet  let 
the  following  facts  declare  : — The  National  Convention  enacted  a 
law  permitting  divorce,  of  which  there  were  registered,  within  about 
a  year  and  a  half,  20,000  cases  ;  and  within  three  months,  562 
cases,  or  one  to  every  three  marriages,  in  Paris  alone.  Well  might 
the  Abb£  Gregoire  exclaim,  "  This  law  will  soon  ruin  the  nation." 
But  this  was  not  all.  "  Infancy  was  committed  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  State  nurseries,  in  which  nine  out  of  ten  died  ;  a  system 
which,  by  infanticide  and  disease,  had,  in  fifty  years,  reduced  by 
one  half  the  population  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  were  it  to 
be  universal  and  permanent,  would,  in  a  few  centuries,  nearly 
depopulate  the  earth."3  The  worship  of  the  Goddess  of  Reason, 
who  had  been  able  to  bestow  nothing  of  that  endowment  on  her 
votaries,  was  abolished,  and  the  law  of  divorce  was  modified  and 
then  repealed  ;  but  Popery,  which  is  still,  as  we  have  seen,  laying 
waste  the  family  of  France,  was  not  able  when  restored  to  coun 
teract  the  mischief  produced  by  infidelity,  for  writers  in  the  earlier 
part  of  this  century  said  of  the  country  :  "  A  chilling  egotism  has 
dried  up  all  the  springs  of  sentiment.  The  domestic  affections 
are  extinct.  No  one  any  longer  enters  into  those  valuable  and 
wise  connexions  by  which  the  present  generation  is  united  to 
the  generations  which  are  to  come."  "  Domestic  crimes,  parri 
cides,  the  murder  of  husbands  by  their  wives,  and  wives  by 
their  husbands,  are  almost  as  common  as  larcenies  were  wont 
to  be."4 

» living's  Alhambra  (1832),  vol.  i.  p.  7. 

2  Rule's  Mission  to  Gibraltar  and  Spain,  pp.  237-239. 

8  Beecher's  Perils  of  Atheism,  p.  86. 

*  Dr.  Esquirol  and  Mennais,  in  Boyle  T^tcturetfor  1821,  T>y  Harness,  vol.  ii.  pp.  110,  111 . 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  233 

3.  The  family  deteriorates  under  a  neglected  or  profaned  Chris 
tian  Sabbath.  "The  Keformed  faith,"  it  has  been  remarked  by 
a  Roman  Catholic  writer,  "is  particularly  favourable  to  family 
affection."1  We  accept  the  confession,  which  is  not  only  honour 
able  to  the  writer,  but  just.  We  shall  find,  however,  in  the 
countries  of  the  Reformation  too  many  examples  of  Sabbath  dese 
cration,  and  of  slackened  or  even  sundered  family  ties,  because  all 
Protestants  are  not  sincere  or  consistent  holders  of  their  professed 
creed.  Manifold  influences — pride  and  fashion,  avarice  and  the 
love  of  pleasure,  by  their  exaction  of  untimely  or  interminable 
labour  from  tradesmen  and  servants  ;  intemperance,  by  its  neglect, 
brutal  treatment,  and  beggaring  of  families  ;  and  licentiousness, 
by  its  "vile"  adulteries,  heartless  seductions,  and  base  patronage 
of  "  the  Social  Evil " — unceasingly  operate  to  the  overthrow  of  a 
holy  Sabbath,  and  to  the  ruin  of  domestic  sanctities,  enjoyments, 
and  hopes.  But  "  what  are  the  high  places  of  Judah  1  are  they 
not  Jerusalem  ?" 

"  The  seventh  day  this  ;  the  jubilee  of  man. 
London  !  right  well  thou  know'st  the  day  of  prayer." 

In  Lord  Byron's  time  "  the  day  of  prayer  "  was  known  by  many 
"a  spruce  citizen,"  "washed  artisan,"  and  "smug  apprentice," 
only  as  a  day  of  play — a  day  on  which  they  might  "  gulp  their 
weekly  air,"  and  indulge  themselves  "with  draught  and  dance 
till  morn."  Since  the  noble  poet's  time,  the  evil  has  gone  on 
and  increased.  A  million  of  Londoners  have  abandoned  church- 
going.  An  unprecedented  number  pour  themselves  by  railways 
into  the  country.  Amusements  are  provided  for  loiterers  at 
home.  And  efforts  have  been  made  to  have  the  Crystal  Palace 
and  other  public  resorts  thrown  open  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  thus 
to  introduce  a  wholesale  desecration  of  sacred  time.  The  evil 
spreads  from  the  capital  over  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 
That  five  millions  of  people  in  the  United  Kingdom  abjure  the 
claims  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  sanctuary  is,  in  other  words,  to  say 
that  one  million  of  families  are  without  the  benefits,  physical,  in 
tellectual,  moral,  religious,  and  economical,  which  these  institu 
tions  convey.  Let  those  who  know  England  better  than  we,  speak 

i  Viel-Castel,  in  Roussel,  vol.  ii.  p.  81. 


234  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

to  its  consequent  domestic  condition.  As  for  Scotland,  we  know 
that  its  home  virtues  and  comforts  have,  in  not  a  few  instances, 
degenerated.  The  excessive  competition  in  all  kinds  of  trade  has 
been  injurious  to  personal  and  social  religion,  and  the  wages 
earned  have  gone  into  "  a  bag  with  holes."  When  families  are 
formed  in  our  cities  and  towns,  it  is  too  frequently  forgotten  to 
erect  an  altar — the  protection,  blessing,  and  glory  of  a  house. 
Even  in  rural  scenes,  it  is  not  so  common  as  formerly 

"  To  hear  the  song 
Of  kindred  praise  arise  from  humble  roofs." 

Our  agricultural  servants  are  in  many  instances  detached  from 
the  families  of  their  masters,  and  yet  precluded  the  means  of 
forming  their  own  domestic  circles — whence  rudeness,  wickedness, 
and  crime.  Intemperance  has  committed  many  ravages  on  house 
hold  piety,  peace,  and  order,  and  this,  like  other  evils,  from  the 
very  want  of  that  Sabbatic  strictness  to  which  it  has  been  so  un 
truly  and  preposterously  imputed.  In  short,  objects  of  gain, 
education,  and  even  benevolence,  have  occasioned  removals  of 
children  from  the  care  of  parents,  or  parents  from  the  society  of 
their  children,  to  the  weakening  of  the  foundations  of  the  family 
and  the  church. 

4.  And  yet  it  is  certain  that  the  family  flourishes  wherever 
the  Christian  Sabbath  is  rightly  observed,  and  nowhere  more  than 
in  Great  Britain  and  America,  which,  with  all  their  faults,  are 
proverbially  superior  to  other  nations  as  Sabbath-keeping  com 
munities.  There,  ancient  custom,  law,  and,  what  is  better,  the 
deep  convictions  and  feelings  of  the  majority  of  the  people,  are 
arrayed  on  the  side  of  the  institution.  It  is  to  these  countries, 
accordingly,  that  several  intelligent  writers,  Roman  Catholic  as 
well  as  Protestant,  assign  the  palm  for  domestic  virtue  and 
happiness.  "  Nowhere,"  says  Madame  de  Stael,  "  can  be  seen 
such  faithful  protection  on  one  side,  and  such  tender  and  pious 
devotedness  on  the  other,  as  in  married  life  in  England.  Nowhere 
do  the  wives  share  with  so  much  courage  and  simplicity  the 
troubles  and  dangers  of  their  husbands,  wherever  the  duties  of 
their  profession  may  call  them."  Baron  D'Haussez  observes, 
"All  things  considered,  ceteris  paribus,  thanks  to* the  influence 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  235 

of  the  manners,  the  married  state  in  England  is  happier  than 
in  any  other  country."  In  equally  laudatory  terms  do  M.  de 
Tocqueville  and  M.  Michel  Chevalier  write  of  the  marriage  tie 
and  conjugal  happiness  as  they  exist  in  America.1  Of  Scotland, 
Dr.  Currie  remarks,  "A  striking  particular  in  the  character  of 
the  Scottish  peasantry  is  one  which  it  is  hoped  will  not  be  lost — 
the  strength  of  their  domestic  attachments.  The  privations  to 
which  many  parents  submit  for  the  good  of  their  children,  and 
particularly  to  obtain  for  them  instruction,  has  already  been 
noticed.  If  their  children  live  and  prosper,  they  have  their  cer 
tain  reward,  not  merely  as  witnessing,  but  as  sharing  in  their 
prosperity.  Even  in  the  humblest  ranks  of  the  peasantry,  the 
earnings  of  the  children  may  generally  be  considered  as  at  the 
disposal  of  their  parents ;  perhaps  in  no  country  is  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  wages  of  labour  applied  to  the  support  and  comfort 
of  those  whose  days  of  labour  are  past.  A  similar  strength  of 
attachment  extends  through  all  the  domestic  relations."2  That 
France  owes  its  low  domestic  state  not  to  its  soil,  not  to  the 
mental  or  physical  character  of  its  people,  but  to  its  want  of  a 
holy  Sabbath  and  a  pure .  Christianity,  might  be  largely  shown 
from  facts  in  the  history  of  its  Protestant  Church.  Let  one  case 
suffice,  in  reading  which  the  Christian  will  recognise  the  leading 
features  of  his  religion,  and  the  Scottish  Christian,  in  particular, 
might  conceive  that  the  scene  is  laid  in  his  own  land,  instead  of 
Africa.  "  Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  there  were 
about  three  thousand  French  refugees  established  at  twelve  leagues 
to  the  north  of  the  Cape,  in  a  fertile  valley,  which  bears,  to  the 
present  day,  the  name  of  French  Valley.  .  .  .  There  is  a  fourth 
village,  the  most  considerable  of  all,  that  of  La  Perle,  whose 
inhabitants,  exclusively  devoted  to  agriculture,  are  the  richest  in 
that  Old  Dutch  Colony,  now  belonging  to  the  English.  This 
population  has  not  forgotten  the  rigid  principles  and  fervid  piety 
of  their  ancestors.  The  traveller  who  crosses  their  hospitable 
threshold  invariably  finds  upon  the  table  one  of  those  great  folio 
Bibles  which  the  French  Protestants  were  wont  to  hand  down 
from  father  to  son,  as  a  sacred  patrimony  and  inestimable  trea- 

1  See,  for  all  these  testimonies,  Rtmssel,  as  before,  vol.  i.  pp.  57,  58 ;  voL  ii.  f.  80. 

2  Life  <tf  Burns,  Prefatory  Remarks, 


236  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

sure.  The  date  of  birth  and  the  names  of  all  the  members  of 
the  family  are  invariably  inscribed  in  it.  Sometimes,  too,  one 
finds  pious  books  in  their  houses,  such  as  the  Psalms  put  into 
verse  by  Clement  Marot.  An  affecting  custom  has  been  pre 
served  amongst  these  simple  and  austere  men.  Night  and  morn 
ing  the  members  of  each  family  assemble  for  prayer.  There  are 
no  formalities  or  pompous  ceremonies ;  they  content  themselves 
with  praying  with  all  their  hearts,  and  with  reading  the  Bible. 
Every  Sunday,  at  sunrise,  the  farmers  set  out  in  their  rustic 
vehicles,  covered  with  hides  or  with  coarse  cloth,  to  attend 
Divine  service,  and  at  night  they  return  peaceably  to  their  homes. 
Gambling  is  unknown  amongst  them,  and  the  refined  corruption 
of  European  civilisation  has  not  reached  them.  The  useful  arts 
and  practical  instruction  are  all  they  care  for  and  cultivate.  They 
seek  to  diffuse  them  among  their  former  slaves,  whom  they  have 
always  treated  with  kindness,  and  they  willingly  devote  much 
time  and  pains  to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  amongst  the 
idolatrous  races  that  surround  them."1 

5.  When  Sabbath  observance  is  begun  or  resumed  by  any 
family  or  people,  the  sure  and  speedy  consequence  is  an  improve 
ment  in  their  domestic  character  and  condition.  The  proof  of  this 
averment  may  be  found  in  every  report  of  Protestant  missions, 
home  and  foreign.  We  give  two  or  three  of  the  more  recent 
examples.  The  Keport  of  the  London  City  Mission  presents  the 
following  among  the  statistics  of  the  good  effected  by  the  Society 
during  the  year  1859-1860  :  "Shops  closed  on  the  Lord's  day, 
293  ;  persons  who  have  become  communicants,  1236 ;  backsliders 
restored  to  church  communion,  253  ;  drunkards  reclaimed,  1102; 
fallen  females  rescued,  524  ;  unmarried  couples  induced  to  marry, 
300;  family  prayer  commenced,  587. "2  A  mission  was  begun 
in  Aneiteum,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  New  Hebrides,  in  1848. 
Formerly  bigamy,  polygamy,  and  repudiation  of  wives  prevailed 
there.  Female  infanticide  was  frequent.  Widows  were  strangled, 
and  cast  into  the  sea  along  with  their  husbands.  In  1860,  the 
Sabbath  is  as  well  observed  as  in  any  part  of  Scotland.  Family 
worship  is  universally  observed  every  morning  and  evening ;  in 
each  of  fifty  or  sixty  districts,  anto  which  the  island  has  been 

1  Roussel,  vol.  ii.  pp.  205,  206.  2  News  ->f  the  Church**,  vol..  vi.  p.  162. 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  237 

divided,  tjiere  is  a  teacher,  with  his  wife,  and  Christianity  has  in 
twelve  years  saved  the  lives  of  upwards  of  100  females,  widows, 
and  infants.  "  I  have  married,"  says  Mr.  Inglis,  one  of  the  mis 
sionaries,  "  about  160  couples  during  the  last  six  or  seven  years, 
and,  with  very  few  exceptions,  they  are  enjoying  as  much  domestic 
happiness  as  could  reasonably  be  looked  for."  1  Scarcely  less 
interesting  is  the  change  that  has  passed  over  another  island  in 
Polynesia,  which,  from  the  excessive  ferocity  of  its  inhabitants, 
was  by  Captain  Cook  named  Savage  Island.  The  people  retained 
the  same  character  for  sixty  years  after  his  time,  but  consented 
eleven  years  ago  to  receive  missionaries,  and  now  all  of  them, 
being  4300,  are  Christian,  with  the  exception  of  some  ten,  who 
still  stand  aloof.  In  the  days  of  heathenism  there  had  been  a 
fearful  destruction  of  children,  but  now  the  natives,  in  whose  cot 
tages  the  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  is  daily  heard,  are  "a  loving 
and  grateful  people."2  We  may  add,  that  the  respect  for  the 
Lord's  day  which  began  to  be  entertained  by  the  slaves  in  Jamaica 
and  other  colonies  was  connected  with  the  observance  of  the  law 
of  marriage,  and  with  a  greatly  improved  morality  in  all  respects. 
6.  Families  in  contiguous  countries,  districts,  or  villages,  are 
strikingly  distinguished  from  one  another  in  respect  of  morals  and 
comfort  according  to  their  treatment  of  the  Sabbath.  Such  con 
trasts  are  frequently  to  be  met  with  in  town  and  country,  at  home 
and  abroad.  In  Belgium,  for  example,  "  the  population,  fond, 
like  the  French,  of  pleasure,  may  be  seen  at  the  theatres,  gar 
dens,  and  all  places  of  public  resort,"  w*nile  in  Holland,  where,  "it 
is  said,  no  person  wishing  to  retain  a  decent  character  in  society, 
can  absent  himself  on  Sundays  from  the  place  of  worship  to  which 
he  belongs,"  "  the  chief  pleasure  is  found  at  home,  and  the  family 
circle  furnishes  the  truest  happiness."3  A  writer,  describing  two 
villages  in  the  south  of  England,  inhabited  by  fishermen,  supplies 
anothei  striking  contrast.  "  Although  but  a  mile  and  a  half  apart 
from  eacn  other,  there  is  a  great  difference  between  the  character 
and  habits  of  the  people  of  Mousehole  and  those  of  Newlyn.  There 
is  much  more  recklessness  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former.  The 

^  Reformed  Presbyterian  Magazine  for  September  1860. 

2  Evangelical  Magazine  for  August  1860. 

«  Thorn  on  the  Sabbath  (1830),  p.  273.     Rousscl,  vol.  i.  p.  280. 


238  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

men  of  Newlyn  do  not  drink  on  board,  but  they  drink  a  good  deal 
on  shore.  A  tipsy  man  is  scarcely  ever  seen  in  Mousehole.  This 
great  reform  is  the  work  of  the  last  few  years.  There  were  for 
merly  five  public-houses  in  the  village,  and  now,  although  it  has 
a  population  of  about  1500,  it  does  not  afford  sufficient  custom  to 
support  even  one.  The  habits  of  the  people  are  in  all  respects 
superior  to  those  of  Newlyn.  No  fisherman  from  Mousehole  will 
take  to  the  sea  on  a  Sunday.  Every  one  of  them  attends  some 
place  of  worship  or  other  on  that  day.  They  are  generally  Method 
ists.  They  are  also  well  educated  according  to  their  circumstances. 
The  village  school  is  a  very  efficient  one.  As  indicative  of  their 
energy,  I  may  here  mention  that  the  fishermen  of  Mousehole  have, 
at  a  cost  of  £1400,  built  for  themselves  a  pier,  which,  with  the 
breakwater  built  many  years  ago  by  the  Government,  forms  their 
little  harbour.  To  construct  it,  they  raised  £1200  on  their  own 
joint  bond,  which  they  are  paying  off  by  instalments,  each  boat 
being  put  under  a  yearly  contribution  for  the  purpose."1 

A  third  illustration,  embracing  eleven  families,  and  extending 
over  three  generations,  is  even  more  important  and  conclusive 
than  that  of  the  two  villages.  In  New  Hampshire  there  are  two 
neighbourhoods — one  of  six  families,  and  the  other  five.  The 
advantages  of  the  two  were  nearly  equal,  except  that  the  five 
families  were  about  three  miles  farther  from  church,  and  had  to 
pass  one  of  those  mountain  ridges  so  common  in  that  vicinity, 
called  "  Governor's  Hill."  The  six  families  were  fond  of  social 
intercourse,  and  used  to  spend  their  Sabbaths  in  visiting  from 
house  to  house — never  visiting  the  sanctuary.  Some  of  them 
totally  disregarded  the  Sabbath,  and  all  eventually  formed  the 
habit.  In  the  course  of  years,  five  were  broken  up  by  the  sepa 
ration  of  husband  and  wife,  and  the  other  by  the  father  becoming 
a  thief,  and  fleeing  to  parts  unknown.  Eight  or  nine  of  the 
parents  became  drunkards,  most  of  whom  have  found  a  drunkard's 
grave.  One  committed  suicide,  and  nearly  all  have  suffered  for 
want  of  the  comforts  of  life.  Of  some  forty  or  forty-five  descend 
ants,  about  twenty  are  known  to  be  notorious  drunkards,  jockeys, 
or  gamblers.  Four  or  five  are  or  have  been  in  the  State's  prison. 
One  fell  in  a  duel.  Some  entered  the  army,  and  have  never  been 

1  Labour  and  the  Poor,  Morning  Chronicle,  Nov.  21, 1849. 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  239 

heard  from  •  others  have  gone  to  sea  and  never  returned  ;  and 
only  a  small  number  remain  within  the  knowledge  of  their  friends. 
Some  are  in  the  alms-house.  Only  one  of  the  whole  is  known  to 
have  become  a  Christian,  he  having  been  "  plucked  as  a  brand 
from  the  burning"  after  having  pursued  a  vicious  miserable  course 
from  his  youth ;  and  he  is  the  only  one  who  has  a  competency  of 
property,  or  the  confidence  of  his  neighbours.  But  how  has  it 
fared  with  the  other  five  families,  by  whom,  it  is  stated,  no  work 
was  done  nor  visits  made  on  the  Sabbath,  but  who  were  all  sure 
to  be  seen,  riding  or  walking,  on  the  way  to  the  House  of  God  ; 
not  without  occasional  taunts  from  their  Sabbath-breaking  neigh 
bours  1  They  all  lived  in  peace,  and  were  prospered  in  their 
labours.  A  large  number  of  their  children  were  reared  up  around 
them,  numbering  now,  with  their  descendants,  from  two  to  three 
hundred.  Eight  of  ten  of  the  children  are  members  of  the  Church, 
and  adorn  their  profession.  In  only  one  instance  has  there  been 
committed  by  any  of  the  descendants  a  crime,  which  was  followed 
by  a  speedy  and  deep  repentance  ;  and  but  one  is  known  to  be 
intemperate.  Some  of  them  are  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  One  is 
a  missionary  to  China.  Numbers  are  supporters  and  officers  of 
churches.  There  has  been  among  them  no  separation  of  husband 
and  wife,  except  by  death,  and  no  suffering  for  want  of  the  neces 
saries  of  life.  The  heads  of  these  families  lived  to  a  good  old  age, 
and  with  a  score  or  more  of  their  descendants  have  gone  down  to 
the  grave  in  peace,  most  of  whom  have  left  evidence  that  they 
died  in  the  Lord.  The  homestead  of  a  number  of  the  families 
is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  third  generation.  A  colony  has  been 
planted  by  the  descendants  on  the  prairies  of  the  West,  main 
taining  the  institutions  of  their  fathers,  and  now  reaping  the 
benefits  of  their  Sabbath-keeping  habits  and  principles.  These 
facts,  say  the  narrators,  speak  a  language  not  to  be  mistaken, 
and  they  come  to  you  from  the  hand  of  the  descendants  of  the 
five  families.1 

7.  Thus  it  is  invariably  found,  that  where  the  Sabbatic  institu 
tion  is  in  force,  the  domestic  institution  flourishes ;  and  that  where 
the  former  is  in  abeyance,  the  latter  is  disorganized.  The  con 
nexion  of  the  one 'with  the  other,  therefore,  cannot  be  arbitrary, 

i  Purttan  Recorder,  quoted  in  Christian  Treasury  for  1850,  p.  549. 


240  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

There  must  be  something  in  the  Christian  Sabbath  that  is  neces 
sary  to  the  family.  The  influence,  indeed,  is  reciprocal.  It  has 
been  said  that  "  none  but  married  parents  build  churches,  support 
ministers,  or  frequent  the  worship  of  God."1  The  head  of  the 
house  is  appointed  in  the  Decalogue  a  custodier,  teacher,  and 
propagator  of  the  Sabbath  law.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Sabbath, 
or  rather  the  pure  religion,  of  which  a  day  of  sacred  rest  is  an 
essential  part,  gives  existence,  stability,  and  prosperity  to  the 
family.  The  mighty  agency  operates  by  promoting  all  the  interests 
— physical,  mental,  moral,  and  economical — of  the  person  by  whom 
the  weekly  holy  day  is  respected,  so  that  if  each  inhabitant  of  a 
house  were  to  rest  and  worship  in  a  Christian  manner  on  that  day, 
the  various  beneficial  tendencies  of  the  practice  would  concur  to 
secure  for  him  a  large  amount  of  good,  and  "  the  resultant"  of  the 
improved  character  and  circumstances  of  the  individual  members 
would  be  the  general  welfare  of  the  household.  The  same  agency 
operates,  also,  by  means  of  the  instructions  and  laws  which  require 
a  Sabbath  for  their  promulgation  and  study,  and  by  which  persons 
are  taught  that  marriage  is  a  Divine  ordinance  ;  that  it  is  the 
voluntary  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman  only,  a  union  which 
nothing  but  the  death  or  infidelity  of  one  or  other  of  the  parties 
ean  lawfully  dissolve  ;  that  husband  and  wife  are  bound  to  love 
each  other,  the  former  giving  honour  to  the  latter  as  being  an  heir 
with  him  of  the  grace  of  life  ;  that  parents  and  children,  masters 
and  servants,  have  their  respective  rights  and  obligations  ;  and 
that,  while  multiplied  evils  must  be  awarded  to  all  who  trample  on 
or  neglect,  many  blessings  are  pledged  to  all  who  perform,  their 
relative  duties — truths,  lessons,  and  sanctions,  that  no  one  can 
credit  without  recognising  the  importance  o^  every  human  being, 
and  abhorring  both  tyranny  and  insubordination  in  the  family  and 
everywhere  else.  And  Christianity  by  its  Sabbath  favourably 
influences  domestic  life  in  yet  another  way.  On  that  day  the 
members  of  a  household  who  are  in  many  cases  necessarily  separated 
on  other  days,  can,  and  do  meet  together,  when  mutual  acquaint 
ance,  affection,  and  sympathy  are  cultivated  ;  children  and  domestics 
are  instructed  ;  and  family  ties  are  strengthened,  hallowed,  and 
blessed  by  family  prayer.  Who  that  has  participated  in  the  pious, 

1  Dwight's  Tlieology,  S«r.  1!9. 


DOMESTIC  BENEFITS.  24-J 

rational,  benevolent  engagements  and  tranquil  enjoyments  of  such 
a  society,  can,  without  doing  violence  to  the  strongest  convictions, 
prefer  the  portion  here  and  hereafter  of  the  votaries  and  victims 
of  delusive  "  pleasure,"  to 

"  Finding  in  the  calm  of  troth-tried  love, 
Joys  that  her  stormy  raptures  never  knew  ?" 

Thus  it  is  that  many  acquire  the  views  of  married  life,  with  the 
domestic  habits  which  prevail  in  this,  and  some  other  countries, 
where,  according  to  the  confession  of  foreigners,  are  realized  the 
highest  idea  and  the  best  blessings  of  home. 

If,  therefore,  "  My  dear,  my  native  soil"  would  not  allow  those 
scenes  to  depart,  from  which 

"  Old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs, 
That  makes  her  loved  at  home,  revered  abroad  ;" 

if  England  would  retain  and  brighten  her 

"  Domestic  happiness,  the  only  bliss 
Of  Paradise  that  has  survived  the  Fall ;" 

if  Britain  and  America  would  not  forfeit  but  increase  their  great 
ness  ;  if  France  would  "  let  the  fire-side  regain  its  influence,"  so 
that  her  "  tottering  edifice  of  religion  and  politics  might  acquire 
both  tone  and  power;"  if,  in  fine,  the  earth  would  shake  from  her 
the  abominations  of  polygamy,  concubinage,  adultery,  causeless 
divorce,  and  "  the  social  evil,"  with  all  their  present  horrors,  and 
their  preparation  of  myriads  for  everlasting  degradation  and  woe, 
— there  must  be  a  sacred  remembrance  in  the  church,  the  world, 
the  house,  the  heart,  of  that  indispensable  auxiliary  and  safeguard 
of  liberty  and  law,  of  the  Bible  and  the  school,  of  the  sanctuary 
and  the  hearth — the  Sabbath-day. 


ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH  TO  NATIONS. 

"I  have  lived  long  enough  to  know  what  at  one  time  T  did  not  believe — that  no 
•ociety  can  be  upheld  in  happiness  and  honour,  without  the  sentiments  of  religion. " 
— Words  of  LAPLACE,  not  long  before  his  death,  to  Professor  Sedgwick. 

"  The  Sabbath,  as  a  political  institution,  is  of  inestimable  value,  independently  of 
its  claims  to  Divine  authority."— ADAM  SMITH.! 

"  WEALTH,"  says  a  popular  writer  on  Political  Economy,  "  is 
but  one  among  a  number  of  causes  which  conduce  to  the  happi 
ness  of  a  people.  Social  happiness  is  the  result  of  a  pure  religion, 
good  morals,  a  wise  government,  and  a  general  diffusion  of  know 
ledge."2  Let  us  consider  these  and  other  elements  which  enter 
into  national  prosperity,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  how  much 
they  are  dependent  for  their  existence  and  power  on  the  Sabbatic 
institution. 

The  welfare  of  a  country  is  in  no  small  degree  promoted  by  its 
wealth,  provided  this  be  not  limited  to  a  few,  but,  while  possessed  in 
a  larger  share  by  some,  be  diffused  in  a  competent  measure  among  all 
classes.  It  is  in  such  circumstances  that  nations  are  more  industri 
ous,  and  have  more  leisure  as  well  as  inclination  for  the  improving 
and  refining  pursuits  of  science,  literature,  and  general  knowledge. 
These  circumstances  remove  society  farther  away  from  the  evils  of 
disorganization  and  barbarism.  The  augmented  capital  and  the 
higher  standard  of  enjoyment  connected  with  such  a  state  of 

i  "The  baronet's  next  undertaking  was  a  quarto  essay  against  what  he  then  con 
sidered  a  too  strict  and  puritanical  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in  Scotland,  but  with 
singular  conscientiousness  he  destroyed  the  whole  manuscript  on  hearing  this  remark 
from  his  friend,  Dr.  Adam  Smith,  which  was  the  more  memorable  as  coming  from  the 
apologist  of  David  Hume  :  '  Your  book,  Sir  John,  is  very  ably  composed ;  but  the 
Sabbath,  as  a  political  institution,  is  of  inestimable  value,  independently  of  its  claims 
to  Divine  authority.'  "—Memoir  of  Sir  John  Sinclair,  by  Chambers. 

9  Conversations  on  Polit.  Econ. ,  sixth  edit.  p.  24. 


TO  NATIONS.  243 

things  supply  increased  stimulus  to  trade,  and  multiply  the  pro 
ducts  of  industry.  And  while  a  general  plenty  is  a  blessing, 
the  affluence  of  individuals  is  a  fund  which  can  be  drawn  upon 
for  large  and  expensive  undertakings,  and  for  any  emergencies  that 
may  arise  from  unpropitious  seasons  or  from  prevailing  disease. 
It  has  been  remarked,  that  the  kingdom  of  Judah  was  in  all 
respects  in  its  best  state  when  its  commerce  was  most  extended, 
and  its  wealth  most  plentiful.  A  prevailing  poverty,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  in  various  ways  injurious  to  society.  It  is  one  cause 
of  the  crime  that  destroys  confidence,  and  entails  a  vast  expense  on 
a  nation.  It  directly  absorbs  much  of  the  capital  of  a  country  to 
the  oppression  of  the  industrious,  and  the  prevention  of  many 
useful  applications  of  money.  It  in  many  cases  induces,  invites, 
and  localizes  disease,  whereby  terror  and  death  are  spread  all 
round.  Of  thousands  thus  made  widows  and  orphans  every 
year,  the  greater  portion  become  burdens  to  the  country,  while 
the  loss  in  productive  labour  by  sickness  and  funerals,  is  im 
mense.  Add  to  this  the  destruction  of  property  to  which  many 
in  these  circumstances  are  impelled,  who  are  not  under  the  con 
trol  of  intelligence  and  moral  principle.  And  the  evil  ends  not 
with  one  generation,  but  goes  down  to  a  sickly  and  degenerate 
posterity. 

The  riches,  which  prevent  so  much  injury,  and  secure  so  much 
good  to  a  nation,  are  the  fruits,  in  abundant  amount,  of  its  pro 
ductive  labour.  The  persons  who  labour  and  economize,  are 
benefactors  of  their  country, — the  idle  and  the  wasteful  dimin 
ish  its  wealth.  It  has  been  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  that 
incessant  toil  is  detrimental  to  the  commercial  interests  of  a  com 
munity  in  the  diminished  amount  and  depreciated  quality  of  its 
material  and  mental  products,  as  the  consequence  of  its  demoral 
izing  tendency,  and  the  physical  exhaustion  of  the  workmen  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  every  kind  of  labour  becomes,  by  the 
interposed  rest  of  the  Lord's  day,  more  valuable,  and  therefore 
more  remunerative.  Connected  with  that  day's  rest,  there  are, 
we  have  seen,  some  remarkable  provisions  for  benefiting  both  the 
labourers  and  the  State.  And  it  has  appeared,  that  in  point  of 
fact  the  wealth  of  nations  graduates  according  to  the  measure  in 
which  the  day  is  religiously  respected  and  observed. 


244  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

Akin  to  the  element  of  wealth  is  another — a  spirit  of  im« 
provement  and  useful  enterprise.  Of  this  spirit,  although  on  a 
small  scale,  a  happy  illustration  has  been  supplied  by  the  Morning 
Chronicle  Commissioner,  in  the  case  of  the  Sabbath-respecting  and 
energetic  fishermen  of  one  of  the  contiguous  villages,  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  same  cause  produces  the  same 
effect,  and  as  in  that  village,  so  everywhere  it  will  be  found  that 
the  Sabbath  well  kept  promotes  a  desire  for  social  improvement. 
And  it  produces  the  effect  in  two  ways,  directly  on  its  friends, 
and  indirectly  on  their  neighbours  who  are  cold  or  hostile  to  its 
claims.  So  powerful  is  the  institution  that  it  operates  benefi 
cially,  not  only  on  its  own  adherents,  but  through  them  on  indi 
viduals  and  communities  that  to  a  great  extent  disregard  its 
authority.  Many  of  our  principal  inventions,  discoveries,  and 
arrangements,  our  steam-engines,  our  railways,  and  telegraphs,  our 
schools  of  art,  our  agricultural,  manufacturing,  and  postal  im 
provements,  take  their  rise  in  Britain  or  America,  those  lands  of 
the  Sabbath  ;  and  other  lands  follow  in  their  wake.  France,  in 
deed,  sends  over  her  contributions  to  our  civilisation ;  but  they 
abound  in  the  frivolous  and  the  effeminate,  and  when  substantial, 
are  much  helped  by  foreign  impulse.  Italy  excels  in  the  fine 
arts,  and  we  are  sufficiently  willing  to  learn  of  her  in  that  depart 
ment,  but  we  cannot  forget  that  Rome,  the  seat  of  a  government 
which  ought,  from  the  assumed  infallibility  of  its  head  and  church, 
to  be  the  most  enlightened  and  advanced  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
is  nevertheless  found,  as  to  all  that  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  a  country,  lagging  ingloriously  behind.  It  will  drain  no 
marshes.  It  will  introduce  no  subsoil  plough  into  its  Campagna 
di  Roma.  It  abjures  winnowing  machines  and  iron  bridges.  It 
would  form  no  railways,  and  strongly  resisted  the  proposals  of 
foreigners  to  introduce  improved  light  into  its  dismal  streets,  and 
only  the  other  day  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  universal  opinion 
and  example  in  these  matters  of  obvious  utility.  Every  at 
tempted  improvement,  indeed,  originated  with  English  skill  and 
capital.  And  "  so  effectually  has  the  Pontifical  Government  de 
veloped  its  influence,  as  to  have  all  but  annihilated  trade  in  the 
Papal  States."  In  the  other  states,  if  we  except  Lombardy, 
matters  are  not  much  better,  and  even  that  fertile,  well-watered 


TO  NATIONS.  245 

portion  of  Italy  is  far  behind  in  the  march  of  improvement.  We 
have  seen  that  considerably  more  than  a  half  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Naples  are  without  any  fixed  employment,  yet  the  Neapolitan 
territory,  which  miserably  maintains  a  population  of  between 
seven  and  eight  millions,  is  capable  of  yielding  abundant  food  for 
at  least  twenty  millions  of  people,  or  three  times  the  present 
amount. 

As  with  Italy,  so  in  many  respects  it  is  with  all  other  countries 
which  are  burdened  with  an  exacting  superstition,  that  yields 
no  compensating  return,  and  are  encumbered  with  a  multitude  of 
holidays,1  without  feeling  the  refreshing  and  animating  influence  of 
a  weekly  day  of  repose  and  religious  instruction.  These  coun 
tries,  however  much  they  profit  by  the  indirect  influence  of  the 
institution  coming  upon  them  from  other  lands,  and  stimulating 
them  by  means  of  commerce  to  the  exertions  by  which  their 
natural  capabilities  are  turned  to  some  account,  are  yet  low  in 
the  scale  of  material  prosperity,  for  want  of  the  direct  impulse  of 
the  institution  in  exciting  a  spirit  of  improvement  among  the 
people.  While  the  manufactures  of  Portugal  are  inconsiderable, 
its  agriculture  is  the  worst  in  Europe.  How  lamentable  is  the 
state  of  Spain,  where  the  great  body  of  the  people  are  abandoned 
to  idleness  and  vice, — where,  with  a  climate  and  soil  admitting 
in  some  spots  of  three  or  four  crops  in  the  year,  not  above  a 
fourth  part  of  the  surface  of  the  country  is  applied  to  any  useful 
purpose,  and  where,  with  excellent  facilities  for  commerce,  the 
exports  are  less  than  those  of  some  of  our  leading  commercial 
towns.2  "The  Protestants  of  the  United  States,"  as  Macaulay 
remarks,  "have  left  far  behind  them  the  Eoman  Catholics  of 
Mexico,  Peru,  and  Brazil ;  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Lower  Canada 
remain  inert,  while  the  whole  continent  round  them  is  in  a  fer 
ment  with  Protestant  activity  and  enterprise." 

It  is  so  much  easier  for  human  nature  to  do  evil  than  good 
that  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  Protestants  on  the  Continent 

1  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  sum  lost  to  Spain  every  holy-day  or  feast-day  by  the 
suspension  of  labour  is  £166,666,  13s.  4d.,  making  an  annual  loss  of  nearly  seven  mil 
lions.— Bell's  Geography,  vol.  ii.  272,  note. 

2  Christian  Treasury  (1846),  p.  3f9.    The  writer  informs  us  tkat  400,000  quarters  of 
grain,  on  an  average,  need  to  be  imported  every  year  to  prevent  multitudes  from  perisu- 
ing  by  famine. 


246  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

of  Europe  should,  under  the  influence  of  Rome  and  of  infidelity, 
have  departed  from  the  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath  which 
was  for  a  long  period  maintained  both  in  the  Lutheran  and 
Calvinistic  churches.  But  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  this 
deviation,  while  at  no  time  universal,  has  never  proceeded  to  the 
same  desecration  of  the  institution  as  has  prevailed  among  Roman 
ists,  and  that  those  churches  have  always  enjoyed  in  connexion 
with  the  Lord's  day  the  means  of  Christian  instruction,  together 
with  freedom  from  the  burden  of  numerous  holidays,  we  are 
prepared  for  the  state  of  things  which  actually  exists,  a  measure 
of  enterprise  inferior  to  that  of  British  and  American  Protestants, 
and  yet  beyond  that  of  their  Roman  Catholic  neighbours. 

In  Switzerland  what  an  improvement  in  every  respect  strikes 
the  eye  as  you  pass  from  Valais  to  Vaud,  or  from  Lucerne  to 
Zurich  !  And  how  spiritless  appears  the  town  of  Lucerne  with 
its  alternate  shops  of  bijouterie  and  cigars,  compared  with  the 
bustling  Zurich,  so  like  our  Birmingham  or  Belfast,  or  with 
thriving  Geneva,  although  all  the  three  have  the  common  advan 
tage  of  being  situated  near  noble  rivers  and  lakes  !  "  The  Can 
tons  of  Zurich,  Basle,  Geneva,  Neuchatel,  Glarus,  and  Outer 
Appenzell,  which  are  all  Protestant,  are  distinguished  above  the 
rest  by  their  industry.  One  circumstance  is  remarkable,  namely, 
that  almost  all  the  manufacturing  industry  of  Switzerland  is 
found  in  the  Protestant  part  of  it,  while  the  Catholics  possess 
little  or  none.  Very  often,  as  in  Appenzell,  the  line  of  demarca 
tion  is  quite  sharply  drawn.  Manufactures  and  Protestantism 
cease  at  once,  and  give  way  to  the  herdsman  and  the  shepherd  ; 
and  that,  not  because  there  is  any  sudden  change  in  the  natural 
features  of  the  country,  for  the  little  Canton  of  Glarus,  for  in 
stance,  is  a  high  mountain  land,  and  yet  it  abounds  in  industrial 
activity.  But  the  people  of  Glarus  are  Protestants ;  they  have 
fewer  fast-days  and  holidays  ;  and  Protestantism  awakens  the 
powers  of  the  mind,  abates  the  influence  of  the  priesthood,  and 
teaches  men  to  rely  on  their  own  exertions."1  The  writer 
observes  that  the  same  remark  applies  to  Germany,  where  "  of 
two  villages  close  together,  the  Protestant  community  will  be 
clean,  industrious,  and  prosperous,  while  tLeir  Catholic  neighbours 

i  Mugge's  Switzerland  in  1847,  voL  I  pp.  202,  203. 


TO  NATIONS.  247 

will  remain  always  poor  and  dirty."1  "Crossing  St.  Maurice's 
Bridge,  our  passports  are  inspected,  and  so  we  are  free  to  enter 
Switzerland  again  from  Savoy  :  the  religion,  Protestantism,  seems 
at  once  to  make  all  things  cleaner,  happier,  and  more  prosperous  ; 
never  was  a  change  more  remarkable.  English-looking  breadth 
of  tillage,  vines  and  maize,  and  walnut  groves  and  pleasant  villages 
have  succeeded  to  all  their  opposites  and  absences ;  and  so  these 
go  on  improvingly  all  through  the  Canton  de  Vaud."2  Turning 
from  the  Continent  to  our  own  country,  we  see  Ireland,  possessed 
of  every  advantage  in  soil,  climate,  minerals,  rivers,  and  harbours, 
for  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  commerce,  and  yet  surpassed 
considerably  in  the  amount  of  national  revenue,  and  in  its  shipping, 
by  somewhat  smaller,  and  far  less  populous  Scotland,  while  her 
people,  though  remarkable  for  their  shrewdness  and  vivacity,  are 
in  the  mass  characterized  by  ignorance,  sloth,  filth,  a  general  state 
of  mind  bordering  on  the  savage,  and  a  social  condition  continually 
approximating  to  destitution  and  famine.  But  you  require  not  to 
go  out  of  Ireland  to  be  convinced  that  the  blame  rests  on  its 
prevalent  religion,  for  passing  from  the  south  or  west  into  the 
north,  u  you  cannot  but  feel  that  Ulster  is  at  least  fifty  years 
ahead  of  its  sister  provinces  in  all  the  true  elements  of  national 
progress ;  and  in  its  general  aspect  so  much  more  resembles 
Britain  than  Ireland,  that  one  could  almost  fancy  some  physical 
convulsion  to  have  severed  it  from  the  one  island,  and  attached  it 
to  the  other."3  This  is  the  language  of  an  Irishman,  who  also 
states  that  "in  1846,  the  Tidal  Harbour  Commissioners  pro 
nounced  Belfast  the  first  town  in  Ireland  for  enterprise  and  com 
mercial  prosperity.  The  revenue  of  its  port  increased  during 
1786-1850,  from  £1500  to  £29,000."  Of  the  comparative 
progress  of  the  principal  ports  in  Ireland  we  may  judge  from  the 
following  figures  : — 

1797.  1842. 

Belfast,  .     ,  .                 .    Tons         13,062  136,747 

Londonderry,         .         .       „               2,856  33,299 

Cork „             13,424  87,925 

Dublin,                                    „             33,485  61,257 

i  Mugge's  Switzerland,  vol.  i.  p.  203. 

3  Diary,  by  Paterfamilias  (1856),  p.  220.  s  Dill's  Ireland's  Miseries,  pp.  SO,  SS. 


248  ADVANTAGES  OP  THE  SABBATH 

There  is,  however,  a  higher  species  of  activity  than  any  that 
respects  only  our  own  material  comforts.  There  is  the  enterprise 
that  aims  at  the  general  good  of  society,  and  particularly  its 
mental  and  moral  improvement.  It  is  necessary  only  to  say  here 
that  no  system  has  accomplished  much  good  in  this  department, 
except  in  so  far  as  it  has  reflected  the  light  and  radiated  the  heat 
which  by  means  of  the  Sabbatic  institution  it  has  received  from 
Revelation. 

The  reason  of  all  this  spirit-stirring  effect  of  the  Christian 
weekly  festival  is  no  mystery.  Its  observance  withstands  the 
depressing  influence  of  toil.  It  is  a  protection  against  the  plea 
sures  which  dissipate  mental  energy,  and  enfeeble  moral  purpose. 
It  introduces  men  into  the  encouraging  and  animating  fellow 
ship  of  their  fellow-creatures.  And  above  all,  it  places  them, 
consciously,  under  the  Divine  eye,  which  stirs  into  a  correspond 
ingly  pure  and  benevolent  activity  every  feeling  and  faculty  of 
their  being. 

t  No  country  can  in  the  highest  sense  prosper  without  such  a 
/  government  as,  by  good  laws  faithfully  administered,  and  con 
sistently  exemplified  by  its  rulers,  discourages  on  the  one  hand 
injustice  and  oppression,  and  restrains  on  the  other  the  encroach 
ments  of  a  lawless  liberty.  And  it  would  be  impossible  to  name 
an  expedient  better  adapted  to  prevent  the  extremes  of  despotism 
and  weakness  in  a  government  than  the  Sabbatic  institution.  The 
Sabbath  is  a  constant  memorial  and  safeguard  to  the  rulers  and 
the  rich  to  keep  them  from  forgetting  their  duty  and  responsibility. 
It  is  a  perpetual  bulwark  for  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  toil 
against  the  undue  exaction  of  labour,  and  against  encroachment  on 
their  property  of  a  seventh  part  of  their  time.  And  effectual  as 
it  is  for  producing  popular  intelligence  and  virtue,  there  must 
spring  up  in  the  country  that  respects  it  those  lawgivers  and  ma 
gistrates  who  will  consult  the  rights  and  the  welfare  of  high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  and  who,  strong  in  their  own  character,  as 
well  as  in  the  support  of  a  sound  public  opinion,  will  be  able  to 
repress  the  risings  of  turbulence  and  disorder.  How  strikiE^rly 
does  history  confirm  these  views  !  In  the  days  of  Solomon, 
when  the  Jewish  religion,  including  its  Sabbaths,  was  in  full 
operation,  Judah  and  Israel  enjoyed  abundant  comforts  and  great 


TO  NATIONS.  249 

prosperity,  and  the  account  of  this  state  of  things  is  followed  by 
the  significant  words,  "  And  Judah  and  Israel  dwelt  safely,  every 
man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig-tree,  from  Dan  even  to 
Beersheba,  all  the  days  of  Solomon."  "  And  Solomon's  wisdom 
excelled  the  wisdom  of  all  the  children  of  the  east  country,  and 
all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt."1  To  the  Sabbath  did  England  in  no 
small  degree  owe  a  government  so  puissant  and  beneficial  as  that 
of  Cromwell,  the  happy  domestic  influence  of  which  is  admitted 
by  Bishop  Burnet,  while  its  foreign  aspect  is  eulogized  by  a  no 
less  unbiassed  judge,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  says,  "  Perhaps  no 
government  was  ever  more  respected  abroad."2  To  the  Sabbath, 
as  a  principal  cause,  was  Britain  indebted  for  such  a  reign  as  that 
of  William  in.,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  for  the  superiority  of  our 
present  constitution  to  the  governments  of  Russia,  France,  and 
Italy,  where  the  people  are  in  chains,  which  the  expansive  spirit 
of  a  nation  imbued  with  the  influence  of  Christian  truth  and  in 
stitutions,  if  we  could  suppose  it  thus  fettered,  would  calmly 
break  in  pieces.  The  policy  of  those  rulers,  who  amuse  their 
subjects  with  frivolous  objects  on  the  Lord's  day,  that  they  may 
not  by  serious  thought  be  led  to  discover  that  they  are  men  and 
deeply  injured  men,  may  be  cunning  and  successful  for  a  time, 
but  it  is  not  wise,  since  its  purpose  is  as  short-sighted  as  it  is 
unjust.  The  convulsions  on  the  Continent  in  1848  furnished 
impressive  illustrations  of  this  truth.  It  is  a  fact  that  these 
convulsions  were  more  destructive  in  Roman  Catholic  kingdoms, 
where  there  was  nothing  entitled  to  the  name  of  a  Sabbath,  than 
in  Protestant  communities,  where  the  institution,  inasmuch  as  it 
brought  along  with  it  the  opportunities  of  a  more  rational  worship 
and  of  better  instruction,  had  not  suffered  so  much  deterioration. 
No  Protestant  prince  lost  his  throne.  And  it  is  especially  worthy 
of  grateful  remembrance  that  Britain,  where,  above  almost  all  coun 
tries  the  Lord's  day  receives  its  meed,  though  far  from  its  due  meed 
of  honour,  stood  firm  and  unscathed  in  all  its  interests  amidst  the 
shakings  of  the  nations  of  Europe.  "  I  see,"  says  the  Chevalier 
Bunsen,  personating  Hippolytus,  "  that  you  have  erected  most  won 
derful  factories  and  cotton  "mills  ;  but  you  do  not  make  the  poor 

1  1  Kings  iv.  20-34. 

2  Tales  of  a  Grandfather,  8vo.  (1848),  p.  211. 


250  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

people,  men,  women,  and  children,  work  in  them  on  Sundays,  as 
the  Gauls  [the  French]  do  in  their  country.  .  .  .  You  have 
known  how  to  unite  freedom  with  order,  popular  rights  with  a 
national  aristocracy  and  hereditary  monarchy,  which  union,  our 
great  heathen  prophet  Cicero  said,  would,  if  ever  it  could  be 
brought  to  pass,  form  the  most  perfect  of  governments." l 

The  prevailing  tranquillity  which  is  maintained  by  a  wise  and 
just  government  is  of  the  greatest  moment  to  all  the  enjoyments 
and  interests  of  a  country.  Spain,  Italy,  and  Ireland,  might  be 
pointed  to  as  presenting  obvious  contrasts  to  such  a  state  of 
things,  and  reference  too  might  be  made  to  those  occasional  scenes 
of  outrage  and  bloodshed  in  countries  usually  peaceful,  which 
enhance  to  the  inhabitants  their  prevailing  advantages.  In 
Scotland,  1800  soldiers  suffice  to  keep  the  peace,  while  Ireland 
required,  for  the  eight  years  preceding  1852,  troops  numbering *at 
an  average  more  than  25,000.  Of  these  troops,  scarcely  3000 
are  found  in  Ulster,  and  except  in  its  southern  counties,  even 
these  are  wholly  unnecessary.  Not  a  soldier  is  stationed  between 
Belfast  and  Derry,  a  distance  of  seventy  miles,  embracing  two  most 
populous  counties,  and  various  large  towns.  Of  the  13,000  police 
in  Ireland,  the  number  stationed  in  Ulster  in  1851  was  1901, 
little  more  than  a  seventh  of  the  force  for  a  third  of  the  popula 
tion.2  What  says  M.  de  Montalembert,  in  name  of  a  Commission 
reporting  to  the  French  Parliament  in  1850  on  Sabbath  Obser 
vance  ?  •  After  remarking  that  the  Almighty  conferred  success  and 
security  on  human  labour  in  proportion  as  nations  respect  the 
Lord's  day,  he  refers  in  proof  to  England  and  the  United  States, 
and  says,  "Witness  that  city  London,  the  capital  and  focus  of 
the  commerce  of  the  world,  s  where  Sunday  is  observed  with  the 
most  scrupulous  care,  and  where  two  and  a  half  millions  of  peo 
pie  are  kept  in  order  by  three  battalions  of  infantry,  and  some 
troops  of  guards,  while  Paris  requires  the  presence  of  50,000 
men."4 

The  connexion  thus  observed  to  subsist  between  a  Christian 

1  Bunsen's  Hippolytus  and  his  Age,  vol.  Ti.  pp.  16,  17. 

2  Thorn's  Statistics,  quoted  in  Dill,  pp.  74,  8?. 

3  "  0  thou,  resort  and  mart  of  all  the  earth.'  —  C 
*  Rapport,  etc.  (1850),  pp.  37,  38. 


TO  NATIONS.  251 

institution  and  social  order  is  not  a  matter  of  accident.  From  the 
whole  preceding  discussion  in  these  pages,  it  follows  that  a 
Sabbath-keeping  community  will  be  healthy,  intelligent,  moral,  and 
comfortable  to  the  extent  in  which  the  influences  of  the  institution 
are  permitted  to  operate.  Those  who  enjoy  such  blessings  can 
have  no  interest  in  turmoil,  or  in  mere  change,  and  only  the  direst 
necessity  would  make  them  revolutionists,  when  all  their  feelings 
are  in  favour  of  peace  and  quiet.  These  men,  too,  can  appreciate 
and  make  allowance  for  the  difficulties  of  rulers,  and  their  attempts 
at  reformation  will  be  rational  and  discreet.  The  meetings  once 
a  week  of  rich  and  poor  prevent  selfish  insulation,  remove  igno 
rant  prejudices,  smooth  asperities,  cherish  kindliness  of  feeling, 
create  a  mutual  interest,  teach  lessons  of  civility,  and  promote 
refinement  of  taste  and  courtesy  in  manners.  "  The  keeping  one 
day  in  seven  holy,"  says  Blackstone,  "  as  a  time  of  relaxation  and 
refreshment,  as  well  as  for  public  worship,  is  of  admirable  service 
to  a  State,  considered  merely  as  a  civil  institution.  It  humanizes, 
by  the  help  of  conversation  and  society,  the  manners  of  the  lower 
classes,  which  would  otherwise  degenerate  into  a  sordid  ferocity 
and  savage  selfishness  of  spirit.  It  enables  the  industrious  work 
man  to  pursue  his  occupation  in  the  ensuing  week  with  health  and 
cheerfulness  ;  it  imprints  on  the  minds  of  the  people  that  sense  of 
their  duty  to  God,  so  necessary  to  make  them  good  citizens  ;  but 
which  yet  would  be  worn  out  and  defaced  by  an  unrernitted  con 
tinuance  of  labour  without  any  stated  times  of  recalling  them  to 
the  worship  of  their  Maker."1  He  might  have  extended  his 
remarks  to  other  classes  of  society.  There  are  those  besides  the 
lower  orders  who  can  be  selfish  and  disorderly,  noted  for  family 
broils,  and  for  their  breaches  of  the  public  peace,  but  a  truthful 
biography  of  such  characters  would  let  us  see  that  those  who  do 
such  things  neither  relish  the  business,  nor  experience  the  tran 
quillizing  pleasures  of  a  sacred  resting  day.  The  saying  of  Burke, 
that  "  whatever  alienates  man  from  God,  must  needs  disunite  man 
from  man,"  holds  good  of  all  classes.  Let  us  again  borrow  a  few 
sentences  from  Bunsen's  Ilippolytus.  After  remarking,  as  already 
quoted,  that  our  manufacturing  people  are  not,  like  the  Gauls  [the 
French],  condemned  to  Sunday  labour,  he  thus  proceeds  :  "  You 

1  Blaokstone's  Commentaries,  vol.  iv.  p.  6d. 


252  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

have,  like  them,  labourers  and  mechanics,  aspiring  to  better  their 
condition ;  but  yours  prefer  working,  and  quietly  associating 
together,  to  the  making  of  revolutions,  and  plunging  others  and 
themselves  into  misery.  You  have  ragged  children  ;  but  you 
clothe  and  educate  them  for  useful  work,  instead  of  enlisting  them 
as  soldiers  to  kill  their  fellow- citizens  ;  and  they  like  learning  to 
read  and  to  work,  rather  than  making  an  attempt  to  convulse 
society  by  their  votes,  and  to  subvert  order  by  arms. 
You  have  just  shown  to  the  world  the  practical  effect  of  the  prin 
ciple  on  which  your  social  arrangements  are  based.  People  on  the 
Continent  believed  (or  tried  to  make  others  believe)  that  the 
gathering  of  so  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  your  working  and 
labouring  men  around  the  spectacle  of  the  Great  Exhibition  would 
be  the  signal,  if  not  of  famine  and  pestilence,  certainly  of  revolution 
and  bloodshed.  But  I  have  seen  them  surround  their  Queen  with 
respectful  affection  :  and  far  from  any  disturbance  taking  place, 
good-will  and  good-humour  and  plenty  never  have  reigned  more 
paramount  anywhere  than  during  these  months  among  you.  Now 
when  I  ask  myself,  since  what  time  you  have  possessed  this  liberty 
and  enjoyed  this  peace  and  tranquillity,  I  cannot  help  remarking 
that  you  owe  it  all  to  that  godly  reform  you  began  to  make  of 
Christianity  about  three  hundred  years  ago."1 

The  occasion,  however — although  ever  to  be  deprecated — may 
call  for  the  defence  of  a  land  against  domestic  or  foreign  foes. 
And  who  are  the  men  best  prepared  in  such  a  crisis  to  stand  by 
their  sanctuaries  and  hearths  ?  The  very  persons  who  have  by 
means  of  the  Sabbath  been  disciplined  not  less  to  energy,  enter 
prise,  self-reliance,  and  physical  strength,  than  to  all  the  finer 
and  gentler  feelings  of  humanity.  Macaulay  describes  Cromwell's 
army  as  one  that  never  found,  either  in  the  British  Islands  or  on  the 
Continent,  an  enemy  who  could  stand  its  onset — as  startling  and 
delighting  Turenne  by  its  fearless  energy  ;  and  mentions  a  brigade, 
outnumbered  by  foes  and  abandoned  by  allies,  which  nevertheless 
drove  before  it  in  headlong  rout  the  finest  infantry  of  Spain.  He 
lets  us  into  the  secret  of  all  this  power,  when  he  says,  "  But  that 
which  chiefly  distinguished  the  army  of  Cromwell  from  other 
armies  was  the  austere  morality,  and  the  fear  of  God  which  per- 

1  Bunsen's  Hipvolytust  vol.  li.  pp.  16-18. 


TO  NATIONS.  25 S 

vaded  all  ranks.  It  is  acknowledged  by  the  most  zealous  royalists 
that  in  that  singular  camp  no  oath  was  heard,  no  drunkenness  or 
gambling  was  seen,  and  that  during  the  long  dominion  of  the 
soldiery,  the  property  of  the  peaceable  citizen  and  the  honour  of 
women  were  held  sacred."1  Thus  "the  people  that  do  know 
their  God  are  strong  and  do  exploits."  It  was  ever  so  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Maccabees*  When 
they  forgot  their  religion  and  its  Sabbaths  they  became  weak  and 
dastardly,  and  were  finally  reduced  to  a  condition  of  abject 
dependence  and  servitude.  In  France  as  compared  with  Britain, 
in  Spain  as  compared  with  Holland,  in  South  as  compared  with 
North  America,  we  find  proofs  that  the  people  whose  character, 
mental,  moral,  and  corporeal,  has  been  deteriorated  by  ignor 
ance,  superstition,  and  the  pursuits  of  frivolity  and  pleasure,  are 
surpassed  in  energy  and  prowess  by  the  men  who  have,  through 
the  Scriptures  and  the  institutions  of  Christianity,  imbibed  the 
spirit  of  faith  and  courage,  and  had  their  intellectual  and  physical 
powers  trained  to  activity  and  endurance.  And  who  are  those 
that  at  the  close  of  a  war  return  to  their  homes  and  ordinary 
avocations,  without  having  been  corrupted  by  the  life  of  a  camp 
or  the  excitements  of  the  battle-field,  and  blend  again  in  general 
society  without  the  slightest  disturbance  of  its  order  and  peace  ri 
The  men  who,  like  Cromwell's  warriors,  have  learned  by  the 
lessons  of  the  Sabbath  that  war  is  not  a  matter  of  desire  or  taste 
but  a  painful  necessity,  and  that  "  the  post  of  honour  is  a  private* 
station."  The  historian  proceeds  to  record  the  following  remark 
able  facts  connected  with  the  disbandment  of  the  army  whose 
virtue  and  bravery  in  the  campaign  he  had  eulogized.  "  Fifty 
thousand  men,  accustomed  to  the  profession  of  arms,  were  at  once 
thrown  on  the  world ;  and  experience  seemed  to  warrant  the 
belief  that  this  change  would  produce  much  misery  and  crime, 
that  the  discharged  veterans  would  be  seen  begging  in  every  street, 
or  would  be  driven  by  hunger  to  pillage.  But  no  such  result 
followed.  In  a  few  months,  there  remained  not  a  trace  indicating 
that  the  most  formidable  army  in  the  world  had  just  been  absorbed 

1  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  122.  How  different  from  the  following  j 
*'  No  woman's  honour  is  safe  in  any  village  through  which  a  French  detachment  hap 
pens  to  be  passing."  Letters  from  Turin.-  Daily  Kxprett,  June  82,  1869. 

12 


254  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

into  the  mass  of  the  community.  The  royalists  themselves  con 
fessed  that  in  every  department  of  honest  industry,  the  discardeo 
warriors  prospered  beyond  other  men,  that  none  was  charged  with 
any  theft  or  robbery,  that  none  was  heard  to  ask  an  alms,  and 
that  if  a  baker,  a  mason,  or  a  waggoner  attracted  notice  by  his 
diligence  or  sobriety,  he  was  in  all  probability  one  of  Oliver's  old 
soldiers."1 

When  a  society  is  characterized  in  its  successive  generations  by 
a  growing  measure  of  health  and  longevity,  it  is  generally  re 
garded  as  in  an  improving  condition.  And  what  sound-minded 
person  can  doubt  that  the  cultivation  of  the  virtues  of  respect  for 
life,  industry,  temperance,  and  providence,  together  with  the  im 
proved  physical  comforts  which  such  a  condition  implies,  not  to 
mention  the  pleasures  of  health  itself,  must  presuppose  as  well  as 
contribute  to  national  wealth,  energy,  and  happiness  1  When  we 
compare  the  present  state  of  our  own  country  with  that  of  de 
graded  and  short-lived  savage  tribes,  with  that  of  half-civilized 
China,  where  so  many  of  the  young  are  left  to  perish,  or  even 
with  that  of  Europe,  in  those  times  when  fell  diseases  created  so 
much  alarm  and  calamity,  we  have  an  impressive  illustration  of 
the  blessings  included  in  the  increasing  duration  of  human  life. 
But  England  teaches  us  the  same  lesson  in  another  way,  for  while 
"  the  value  of  life  is  greater  there  than  in  any  country  in  the 
world,"2  with  all  other  elements  of  greatness  and  prosperity  in 
proportion,  she  presents  over-against  these  honours  the  spectacle 
of  life  in  its  lowest  form  of  discomfort  and  abbreviation.  We  see 
a  large  class  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  simplest  sani 
tary  rules,  of  the  plainest  principles  of  political  economy,  and 
especially  of  those  intellectual  and  moral  subjects  which,  above  all 
other  means,  dignify,  bless,  and  prolong  the  life  of  man.  We  see 
a  vast  number  the  victims  of  crimes,  which  not  only  in  many  in 
stances  entail  capital  punishment,  but  as  connected  with  imprison 
ment  and  other  sufferings,  are  equivalent  to  30  years'  tear  and 
wear  of  life,  the  criminal  of  35  years  being  65  years  old  in  con 
stitution,  and  by  imprisonment  itself  increase  exactly  fourfold  the 
chances  of  death.3  And  we  see  tens  of  thousands  ruined  by  vice, 

1  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  15-*. 

*  Dr.  S.  Smith's  Philosophy  of  Health,  vol.  i.  (1851),  p.  HT.  3  Ibid.  p.  108. 


TO  NATIONS.  256 

avarice,  vanity,  ambition,  luxury,  indolence,  intemperance,  and 
other  abettors  of  the  claims  of  the  grave.  "  The  death-rate  in 
Great  Britain,"  said  Mr.  Chadwick,  at  the  recent  Social  Science 
Congress  in  Glasgow,  "  may  be  stated  in  round  numbers  alto 
gether  at  half-a-million  annually.  On  an  analysis  of  the  causes 
of  death  with  a  knowledge  of  the  present  state  of  sanitary  science, 
it  is  declared  by  others  than  myself  that  one-half  may  be  pre 
vented,  and  that,  too,  not  by  rudimentary,  but  by  tried  and  well- 
ascertained  means."  Who  can  compute  the  moral,  physical,  and 
social  evils  involved  in  so  many  deaths  with  their  foregoing  suf 
ferings, — the  guilt  of  so  many  human  sacrifices  to  human  passions, 
— the  lamentation,  mourning,  and  woe  of  the  sufferers  and  sur 
vivors, — the  destitution  to  which  so  many  widows  and  orphans 
are  reduced,  and  the  irreparable  injury  to  society  from  lost  labour, 
superadded  burdens,  increased  disease,  and  multiplied  crimes  1 

Science  teaches  us  that  many  of  such  evils  are  preventible,  and 
that,  though  there  are  bounds  to  life  which  cannot  be  passed, 
human  beings  might  be  so  circumstanced,  and  might  so  act  as  to 
fill  up  happily  the  measure  of  their  days.  In  confirmation  of  this 
position,  it  points  to  the  higher  average  life  attained  by  some 
nations  and  classes  than  by  others,  and  to  cases  of  countries,  dis 
tricts,  and  towns,  where  comparative  health  is  enjoyed  by  all 
orders  of  the  population.  It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted,  however, 
that  writers  on  sanitary  reform,  not  fully  applying  the  Baconian 
principle  of  gathering  truth  from  a  sufficient  induction  of  particu 
lars,  have  failed  in  so  many  instances  to  discover  the  root  of  the 
prevailing  evil  to  be  impiety,  and  to  learn  that  all  appliances 
which  are  not  guided  by  this  fact  are  mere  palliatives,  not 
remedies. 

To  one  sanitary  expedient  this  objection  does  not  apply,  for  if 
there  be  any  expression  which  the  amplest  evidence  has  proved 
to  indicate  more  comprehensively  than  another  the  instrumen 
tality  by  which  so  much  waste  of  life  is  to  be  prevented,  and  the 
benefits  of  general  and  prolonged  health  are  to  be  secured,  it  is 
to  be  found  in  the  words,  "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep 
it  holy."  For  that  evidence  we  refer  to  the  preceding  pages,  and 
to  a  few  statements  now  to  be  submitted,  with  the  view  of  show- 
ing  that  the  condition  of  large  classes  of  men,  in  respect  of  health, 


256  ADTANTAGES  OP  THE  SABBATH 

bodily  vigour,  and  longevity,  according  as  they  have  laboured  or 
rested  on  the  Sabbath,  is  actually  such  as  from  the  physical  adap 
tations,  and  salutary  effects  in  particular  instances  of  the  institu 
tion,  might  have  been  anticipated. 

The  countries  of  Europe  where  the  duration  of  life  varies  most 
widely  are  England  and  Italy,  and  it  will  be  admitted  that  no 
two  countries  differ  more  in  their  treatment  of  the  day  of  sacred 
rest.  While,  as  already  remarked,  the  value  of  life  is  in  no  part 
of  the  world  higher  than  in  England,  "  the  proportion  of  deaths 
to  the  whole  number  of  inhabitants  is  greater  in  Italy  than  in 
any  country  of  Europe," l  It  does  not  affect  our  conclusion,  that 
this  excessive  mortality  is  owing  in  good  part  to  undrained 
marshes  and  swamps.  Let  the  refusal  of  Rome  to  accept  the  offer 
of  Englishmen  to  remove  the  causes  of  fatal  malaria  set  aside  the 
apology,  and  show,  moreover,  what  a  change  of  religious  institu 
tions  would  do  for  the  health  of  Italy.  The  intermediate  rates  of 
mortality  in  Russia,  Austria,  Sweden,  Belgium,  and  Holland,  and 
France,  are  not  at  variance  with  the  results  which  their  religious 
observances  would  lead  us  to  expect.  According  to  a  census  pre 
sented  to  Parliament,  the  proportion  of  sickness  in  the  different 
provinces  of  Ireland  was  as  follows  :  Ulster,  1  in  47 '36  ;  Lein- 
ster,  1  in  22-63  ;  Connaught,  1  in  20-19  ;  and  Munster,  1  in 
11-78.  The  lowest  average  life,  in  short,  is  to  be  found  -among 
savage  men,  criminals,  prisoners,  and  slaves,  who  either  have  no 
knowledge  of  a  holy  Sabbath,  or  recklessly  disregard  it,  while 
"the  best  lives"  are  to  be  found  in  Great  Britain,  and  there 
among  the  "  multitude  that  go  to  the  house  of  God,  that  keep 
holy  day."  It  has  been  said,  that  among  the  humbler  provident 
classes  who  enrol  themselves  members  of  friendly  societies  in  this 
country,  there  is  experienced  a  prolonged  duration  of  life  above 
all  others.2  Not  to  mention  how  much  the  existence  of  a  Sab 
bath  in  a  land,  and  its  observance  by  many,  influence  all  classes 
to  some  extent,  and  contribute  to  the  formation  of  such  societies, 
we  believe  it  will  be  found  that  the  members  who  generally  com 
pose  them  are  at  the  same  time  members  of  Christian  churches. 
And  it  is  indeed  one  of  the  glories  of  Christianity  and  its  Sabbath, 

1  System  of  Universal  Geography  founded  on  the  works  ofMalte  Brun  and  Balbi,  p.  56i 
'  Burton's  PoUt.  and  Soe.  Econ.  (1849),  pp.  76,  77. 


TO  NATIONS.  257 

that  a  class  of  men  are  thereby  elevated  from  circumstances  which 
depress  and  cut  short  the  earthly  existence  of  their  fellows,  to  a 
degree  of  comfort  and  a  measure  of  life  equal  to  those  of  their 
wealthier  brethren,  and  proper  to  their  rank  as  men. 

In  the  same  way  would  health  and  length  of  days  become, 
much  more  than  they  are  at  present,  the  inheritance  of  society  at 
large.  Most  certainly,  if  ignorance  were  generally  enlightened,  if 
crime  and  vice  were  everywhere  suppressed,  if  labour  were  in  all 
cases  regulated  by  a  due  regard  to  human  strength,  and  if  people 
had  comfortable  dwellings,  sufficient  food,  pure  air,  and  cleanly 
persons,  that  happiness  of  individuals  and  nations  arising  from  a 
pleasurable  and '  protracted  life  would  be  realized  which  is  thus 
with  exquisite  beauty  described — "  There  shall  be  no  more  thence 
an  infant  of  days,  nor  an  old  man  that  hath  not  filled  his  days  ; 
for  the  child  shall  die  an  hundred  years  old.  And  they  shall  build 
houses,  and  inhabit  them  ;  and  they  shall  plant  vineyards,  and  eat 
the  fruit  of  them.  For  as  the  days  of  a  tree  are  the  days  of  my 
people,  and  mine  elect  shall  long  enjoy  the  work  of  their  hands." 
Let  us  mark  the  closing  words  of  the  magnificent  account — 
"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from  one  Sabbath  to  another, 
shall  all  flesh  come  to  worship  before  me,  saith  the  Lord."1 

On  the  importance  of  a  prevailing  morality  to  the  welfare  of 
a  State  it  would  be  superfluous  to  enlarge.  Let  falsehood  be 
general,  and  all  confidence  would  be  subverted.  Abounding 
idleness  would  be  abounding  penury.  If  crime  were  unrestrained, 
where  would  be  the  security  for  property,  the  inducements  to  in 
dustry,  economy,  and  improvement,  or  the  opportunity  for  culti 
vating  science  and  literature  ?  A  community  corrupted  by  luxury 
and  vice  is  always  regarded  as  ready  to  become  the  prey  of  some 
powerful  neighbour,  or  to  waste  away  under  poverty  and  disease. 
The  greatest  empires  and  many  petty  kingdoms  have  perished, 
the  victims  of  their  own  wickedness.  But  for  the  check  of  a 
public  morality,  society  generally  would  in  due  time  reach  the 
crisis  of  those  tribes  which  have  cast  themselves  out  of  the  pale 
of  civilisation  and  law  ;  might  become  right,  industry  discarded, 
the  land  uncultivated,  war  and  plunder  the  chief  occupations, 
famine,  pestilence,  and  death  following  in  the  train  of  sloth,  iguo- 

i  Isaiah  Ixv.  20-22  ;  IxvL  23. 


258  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

ranee,  and  rapacity,  and  the  scene  enacted  in  many  places  which 
was  witnessed  in  a  Polynesian  island,  where  the  three  or  four 
survivors  of  an  exterminating  war  contended  who  should  be  king. 
But  where  is  the  security  for  a  morality,  which,  not  merely  arrest 
ing  decay,  will  impel  society  onward  in  a  course  of  continual 
improvement  1  Let  us  learn  from  the  dissolute  manners  of  the 
Babylonians ;  from  "  the  private  debauchery  and  public  profli 
gacy  in  which  the  Greeks  and  Eomans  were  steeped  ; "  from  the 
impure  and  cruel  rites  of  idolatry  ;  from  the  powerlessness  of 
Islamism  to  preserve  its  adherents  from  vice,  and  its  countries 
from  degradation ;  from  the  incapacity  of  a  corrupt  Christianity, 
as  in  Spain,  Italy,  and  Ireland,  to  stay  the  plague  of  moral  evil, 
and  to  throw  off  the  gangrene  of  political  decline  ;  and  from  the 
inroads  of  infidelity  and  immorality  on  continental  and  British 
Protestantism, — let  us  learn  from,  all  these  facts  that  there  is  no 
sure  provision  for  a  conservative  and  elevating  national  virtue  in 
science,  literature,  the  arts,  or  in  any  religion  that  is  without  a 
weekly  day  devoted  exclusively  to  rest  and  to  the  occupations  and 
pleasures  of  a  rational  earnest  piety.  That  the  Sabbath  as  thus 
observed  is  the  security  for  the  morals  and  consequent  preserva 
tion  and  advancement  of  nations,  appears  not  only  from  the  failure 
of  all  other  expedients  to  secure  these  results,  but  from  the  uni 
form  success  in  attaining  them,  which  has  distinguished  the  insti 
tution.  The  authorities  in  France,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  began 
a  few  years  ago  to  perceive  that  something  better  than  a  conti 
nental  Sabbath  is  required,  as  was  evinced  in  the  efforts  of  M.  de 
Montalembert,  and  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  to  expose  and  cor 
rect  its  enormities.  It  would  be  well  that  foreigners  who  are 
desirous  of  promoting  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  would 
ponder  the  peculiarities  which  have  imparted  to  the  practice  in 
this  country  a  salutary  influence  such  as  they  have  not  failed  to 
observe  and  acknowledge,  and  that  those  Englishmen,  too,  who 
sigh  for  a  continental  license  in  this  matter,  would  weigh  the 
same  subject  in  connexion  with  the  failure  of  holidays  in  neigh 
bouring  countries  to  secure  the  morality  of  the  people,  and  the 
prosperity  and  stability  of  States.  Let  both  classes  reflect  on 
what  constitutes  the  power  of  an  institution  which  has  done  so 
much  to  make  Britain  a  great  country,  and  which  is  the  means 


TO  NATIONS.  259 

of  raising  up  every  year  thousands  from  among  those  whom  their 
o\vn  Sabbath-breaking  and  that  of  others  have  sunk  in  the  lowest 
moral  and  social  degradation,  to  the  dignified  position  of  virtue, 
usefulness,  and  comfort.  Let  them  remember  that  there  must  be 
some  admirable  contrivance  and  energy  in  an  instrument  which 
has  without  an  exception  been  employed  in  producing  those  re 
markable  changes  of  character,  from  a  slothfulness  hardly  admit 
ting  of  the  moderate  exertion  necessary  for  cooking  food  to  dili 
gence  in  cultivating  the  soil,  building  comfortable  dwellings,  and 
engaging  in  commerce  ;  from  a  total  recklessness  of  life  to  feelings 
of  mercy  towards  man  and  beast ;  from  the  desire  of  plunder  to 
respect  for  property ;  from  lawless  libertinism  to  conjugal  affec 
tion  and  fidelity, — which  have  crowned  missionary  efforts  in 
heathen  lands,  and  been  among  the  glories  of  our  age.  If  they 
considered  these  things,  and  drew  the  necessary  inference  that 
what  has  accomplished  such  results  among  all  classes  of  men 
must  be  capable  of  accomplishing  them  universally,  they  could 
not  but  feel  the  obligation  imposed  upon  them  to  cease  from  the 
suicidal,  unpatriotic,  unphila^ithropic  policy  of  ridiculing  and 
opposing  the  sacred  Sabbath,  and  to  unite  with  its  friends  in 
maintaining  its  sanctity  and  extending  its  blessings. 

Another  element  in  social  prosperity  and  happiness — one  on 
which  political  economists  place  much  reliance,  and  which  has 
existed,  as  well  as  been  beneficial  in  its  operation,  precisely  in  pro 
portion  to  the  observance  of  the  Christian  Sabbath — is  a  generally 
diffused  intelligence.  Knowledge  is  the  parent  and  nurse  of  those 
arts  which  abridge  human  labour,  multiply  our  comforts,  and  em 
bellish  and  refine  society.  There  are  two  great  evils  to  which  it 
is  in  no  small  degree  an  antidote.  It  is  well  ascertained  that 
disease  prevails  and  destroys  in  many  casss  where  intelligence  on 
the  part  of  its  victims  would  have  arrested  its  progress,  or  even 
prevented  its  attack  ;  that  for  want  of  the  due  exercise  of  the 
mental  faculties  whole  tribes  of  human  beings  physically  degene 
rate,  and  that  from  ignorance  many  others  prematurely  perish. 
Let  men  be  properly  instructed  ;  and  aware  of  the  causes  of  injury 
to  health,  they  will  avoid  them  as  they  now  eschew  poison. 
For  poverty,  also,  a  principal  remedy  is  to  be  found  in  the  gene 
ral  information  of  the  people.  Impart  instruction  to  an  indivi- 


260  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

dual,  and  he  acquires  a  self-respect  which  will  make  him  unwill 
ing  to  depend  on  the  bounty  of  others,  and  he  will  therefore  strive 
against  sinking  into  penury.  Intelligence  will  suggest  to  him 
reasons  for  providence  and  plans  of  economy.  It  will  induce  a 
readiness  to  discern  the  symptoms  of  a  decaying  trade,  or  of  a 
threatened  scarcity  of  employment,  with  a  promptitude  in  turning 
to  some  other  means  of  support,  and  the  ability  to  meet  the  de 
mands  for  a  superior  kind  of  work.  Agricultural  labourers  in 
some  parts  of  this  country  have,  it  is  alleged,  been  prevented  from 
going  in  quest  of  employment  by  "  profound  ignorance  of  every 
thing  connected  with  the  countries  whither  they  would  be  sent."1 
"  The  labour  of  the  foolish  wearieth  every  one  of  them,  because 
he  knoweth  not  how  to  go  to  the  city."  It  is  the  peculiarity  of 
work  of  every  kind,  as  a  writer  observes,  that  a  small  addition  to 
the  expertness  makes  a  large  addition  to  the  remuneration,  and 
that  the  higher  the  grade  the  more  marked  is  this  difference.  The 
superior  education  of  the  Scotsman,  accordingly,  gives  him  an  ad 
vantage  wherever  he  goes.  His  "  knowledge  is  power  "  to  adapt 
himself  to  circumstances,  and  to  do^vhat  others  cannot  do  ;  power, 
therefore,  to  raise  himself  above  want,  and  to  get  on  in  the  world. 
And  what  is  thus  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual  is  for  the  com 
mon  good.  We  find  employers  attesting  that  "  educated  work 
men  turn  out  the  greatest  quantity  of  the  best  work  in  the  best 
manner;"  that  "  the  educated  and  cultivated  workpeople  of  all 
ages  are  decidedly  the  best ;  more  valuable  as  mechanics,  because 
more  regular  in  their  habits,  and  more  to  be  relied  on  in  their 
work  ;"  and  that  "  their  best  servants  are  those  who  have  been 
taught  in  their  youth."  The  importance  of  intelligence  on  the 
part  of  those  servants  on  railways,  and  in  other  situations,  to  whom 
in  our  day  so  great  and  dangerous  powers  are  intrusted,  it  is  im 
possible  adequately  to  estimate. 

1  This  has  been  said  of  labourers  in  the  south  of  England.  The  following  furnishes 
toth  a  contrast  and  a  counterpart : — "  I  am  old  enough  to  remember  the  Highland 
tenantry  of  Scotland  driven  in  multitudes  from  a  soil  to  which  their  race  had  for  ages 
been  attached,  nearly  in  a  state  of  serfage,  to  make  room,  as  is  the  case  in  Hungary, 
for  sheep ;  and  I  had  afterwards  the  happy  opportunity  of  seeing  the  poor  High 
landers  attaining  the  means  of  independent  living  amidst  the  wilds  of  America  ;  but 
the  wretched  serfs  of  Hungary  have  neither  the  intelligence  nor  the  means  to  find  w» 
totes  s*d  an  asylum."-  A uftria  and  the  Austrians,  /el.  i.  p.  19. 


TO  NATIONS.  261 

There  remains  to  be  noticed  one  more  requisite  to  social  pro 
sperity — a  pure  religion.  The  conviction  that  the  public  recogni 
tion  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  indispensable  to  the  good  of  society 
has  been  all  but  universal.  The  exceptions  are  like  the  monstrosi 
ties  in  nature,  which  do  not  disprove  the  existence  of  pervading 
general  laws.  When  a  Berkeley  affirms  the  impossibility  of  mat 
ter,  and  a  Hume  fancies  himself  to  be  constituted,  as  described  in 
four  lines  suggested  for  inscription  on  his  monument — 

"  Within  this  circular  idea, 
Called  vulgarly  a  tomb, 
The  impressions  and  ideas  rest, 
That  constituted  Hume  "  — l 

such  paradoxes  are  regarded  as  no  more  affecting  the  common  rule 
of  faith  in  the  existence  of  matter  and  mind  than  any  lusus  does 
the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  So  the  rare  and  unnatural  ap 
pearance  of  a  man  who  discards  all  religion  proves  nothing  against 
it,  if  it  does  not  strengthen,  as  exceptions  do  a  rule,  the  evidence 
in  its  favour.  The  extravagance  of  opinion  occasionally  uttered 
on  such  a  subject  may  be  fitly  compared  to  the  aberrations  of  the 
person  who  conceives  himself  made  of  glass,  or  of  the  beggar  who 
imagines  himself  a  king,  with  this  difference,  that  the  views  of 
the  sceptic  admit  not  of  the  apology  of  mental  hallucination,  but 
have  originated,  as  the  recantations  of  infidelity  have  afterwards 
proved,  in  some  criminal  passion.  Mankind  from  Numa  Pom- 
pilius  downwards  have  been  convinced  that  society  cannot  go  on 
without  religion.  Even  Robert  Owen,  who  said  so  much  against 
it,  and  did  so  little  without  it,  was  constrained  at  last  to  call  in 
the  aid  of  a  supernatural  element. 

This  general  consent  is  itself  a  strong  proof  of  the  importance 
of  religion  to  social  prosperity,  but  it  is  impressively  confirmed  b;y 
the  miserable  situation,  verging  on  dissolution,  of  all  those  com 
munities  in  which  the  religious  element  has  through  neglect  or 
violence  been  almost  or  altogether  extinguished.  It  has  been 
supposed  that  some  savage  tribes  have  no  notion  of  a  God,  as 
they  have  no  name  for  him  in  their  language.  Among  the 
Esquimaux  and  the  aborigines  of  New  Holland,  the  impression  of 

i  Lines  by  Mr.  George  IJarrlnv.     Christ  Mag.  (1813),  p.  ail. 

12* 


262  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

a  Supreme  Being  was  too  feeble  to  inspire  any  religious  worship. 
There  was  a  class  of  the  Tambookies,  an  African  tribe,  who  dis 
regarded  what  their  parents  said  of  Tixo,  the  Creator  and  Preserver 
of  all  things,  considering  them  old  and  ignorant  people,  and  said 
to  the  Moravian  missionaries,  "As  we  left  off  believing  in  God, 
you  came  to  instruct  us  and  to  tell  us  more  than  our  fathers  and 
ancestors  knew."  All  these  may  be  said  to  belong  to  the  very 
lowest  class  of  human  beings,  and  prove  that  man's  descent  as  a 
religious  being,  and  his  prostration  as  a  rational  and  social 
creature,  are  in  melancholy  coincidence  and  proportion.  Nor  will 
civilisation  protect  against  decline  or  anarchy  the  nations  that 
have  been  smitten  with  a  prevailing  infidelity.  Witness  Greece 
before  its  loss  of  liberty,  Rome  at  the  wane  of  the  republic,  Italy 
amidst  the  corruption  of  its  Church  and  State,  and  France  before 
its  first  revolution.1  The  most  remarkable  of  these  is  France, 
which  is  perhaps  the  only  country  that  infidelity  ever  conquered 
to  its  views,  and  which  amidst  the  reflected  light  of  sixty  centuries, 
and  the  blaze  of  civilisation,  ventured  on  the  tremendous  experi 
ment  of  proclaiming  independence  of  Heaven  ;  at  one  fell  swoop 
abrogating  the  Sabbath,  abolishing  worship,  and  abjuring  the 
faith  of  immortality  and  of  a  God  !  The  results  are  well  known 
- — the  disruption  of  all  social  bonds,  the  opening  of  the  flood 
gates  of  immorality  and  crime,  and  an  incalculable  amount  of 
misery,  all  tending  to  the  sure  and  speedy  ruin  of  the  nation. 
Meanwhile  the  very  mimicry  of  religion  in  their  decades,  in  their 
goddess  and  temples  of  reason,  in  their  orations  and  hymns  in 
honour  of  their  deities,  was  a  tribute  to  the  necessity  of  rest, 
instruction,  and  worship  of  some  sort — the  counterfeit  confessing 
the  felt  need  of  the  real — the  new  expedients,  so  grotesque  and 
pitiful,  while  they  betrayed  man's  helplessness  without  all  religion, 
showing  how  shallow  and  idiotic  his  schemes  are  to  contrive  and 
provide  a  substitute.  And  the  testimony  in  favour  of  religion 
received  its  full  triumph,  when  the  forced  return  of  a  proud  people 
to  their  ancient  faith,  such  as  it  was,  attested  that  the  civilized  no 
less  than  the  barbarous  require  a  God,  a  religion,  and  a  Sabbath, 
and  when  by  the  earliness  of  the  return  it  was  demonstrated 
that  the  reins  of  government  could  not  even  for  a  brief  spaca' 

1  Douglas's  Truths  of  Religion,  p.  12. 


TO  NATIONS.  263 

be  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  Atheism  without  involving  general 
ruin,  any  more  than  Phaeton  could  for-  a  day  attempt  to  guide 
the  steeds  and  chariot  of  the  sun  without  setting  the  world  on 
fire. 

Although,  however,  infidelity  has  been  tried  and  found  wanting, 
it  does  not  follow  that  every  system  claiming  the  name  of  religionr 
should  be  adapted  for  much  good  to  society.  It  is  a  pure  religion 
which  statesmen  and  political  economists  affirm  to  be  important 
to  social  prosperity.  We  must  judge  of  systems  by  their  fruits. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  religions  of  savage  nations 
will  not  stand  this  test.  The  New  Zealanclers  had  the  idea  of  a 
Great  Spirit,  who  thundered,  brought  the  wind,  and  was  the  cause 
of  any  unforeseen  loss  of  property  or  life,  but  they  were  neverthe 
less  cannibals,  and  as  far  advanced  in  1642  as  they  were  a  cen 
tury  later.  The  Polynesian  nations  without  an  exception  enter 
tained  the  belief  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  yet  their  notions  of  the 
Deity  were  too  gross  and  absurd  to  prevent  exterminating  wars 
and  wasting  licentiousness.  Such  are  all  savage  tribes,  except 
those  who  have  sunk  to  the  still  lower  depth  of  utter  depression, 
which  some  have  mistaken  for  simplicity  and  innocence.  When 
we  turn  to  nations  of  a  superior  grade,  we  shall  find  that  none 
but  those  that  have  embraced  Christianity  have  ever  reached  a 
complete  civilisation.  The  religions  of  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome, 
the  most  perfect  ancient  faith,  failed  to  banish  the  most  cruel 
customs,  to  humanize  the  upper  classes,  or  to  enlighten  and  elevate 
the  great  body  of  the  people.  And  the  creeds  of  Confucius, 
Mohammed,  Brahma,  and  Boodh,  have  for  ages  down  to  the 
present  day  held  multitudes  of  the  human  race  in  abject  bondage, 
general  poverty,  and  deep  depravity.  The  difference,  in  short, 
of  Europe  and  North  America  from  the  other  regions  of  the  earth, 
is  the  exponent  of  the  superiority  of  the  Christian  to  every  other 
faith. 

But  the  name  Christian  itself  has  been  claimed  by  a  variety  of 
sects,  entertaining  opinions  very  dissimilar,  and  requiring  us  to 
apply  the  test  by  which  we  discriminate  Christian  from  non- 
Christian  systems, — their  practical  results.  The  chief  of  these 
parties  are  the  Roman  Catholic,  Greek,  and  Protestant  churches. 
There  must  be  some  superior  vitality  common  to  the  creed  of 


264  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH 

those  Churches,  to  account  for  the  superior  social  condition  of 
their  members  to  that  of  the  whole  world  besides,  but  there  must 
also  be  more  life  in  Protestantism  than  in  the  other  systems,  in 
the  ratio  of  its  more  salutary  influence  on  the  countries  where  it 
prevails.  Roman  Catholics  themselves  will  admit,  with  one  of 
their  own  journalists,  that  "unquestionably  since  1789,  the 
balance  of  power  between  Catholic  and  non-Catholic  civilisation 
has  been  reversed."  The  evidence  of  history,  much  of  which  has 
been  already  presented,  would  support  a  more  unqualified  con 
fession.  But  it  is  sufficient  to  add  that,  while  Protestant  mis 
sions  have  raised  men  of  every  clime  from  the  lowest  condition  to 
all  the  decencies,  and  to  many  of  the  comforts  of  civilized  life, 
Rome  has  signally  failed  here,  and  for  the  reason  assigned  in  the 
following  words, — a  reason  no  less  applicable  to  its  comparative 
inefficiency  at  home  :  "  The  Church  of  Rome  represses  independ 
ent  judgment  and  action,  keeps  its  heathen  ne®phytes  submissive 
and  in  fetters,  keeps  them  as  it  finds  them,  children.  In  Para 
guay,  in  India,  in  every  place  where  they  have  planted  the  cross, 
this  has  been  a  result,  and  never  in  a  heathen  country  have  we 
seen  any  national  progress,  social  or  religious,  grow  out  of  the 
propagation  of  the  faith."1 

But  amidst  the  various  creeds  of  nominal  Protestants — some 
of  them  "  wide  as  the  poles  asunder" — we  have  to  inquire  for 
the  specific  faith  which  most  favourably  influences  the  state  of 
society.  That  Unitarianism  is  not  entitled  to  this  honour  might 
be  presumed  from  the  closeness  of  its  approximation  to  infidelity, 
and  actually  appears  from  its  tried  incapacity  to  propagate  and 
maintain  itself.  We  are  saved  the  necessity  of  leading  a  proof  of 
the  former  assertion  by  the  admission  of  the  great  champion  of  the 
system,  Dr.  Priestley,  who,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Theophilus  Lindsey 
respecting  President  Jefferson,  said  :  "  He  is  generally  reported  to 
be  an  unbeliever,  but  if  so,  you  know  he  cannot  be  far  from  us."2 
The  other  assertion  is  established  by  the  history  of  Unitarianism. 
Let  the  following  facts  speak  for  the  rest.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
stronghold  of  the  system  in  America,  while  the  Puritans  were 
successfully  employed  in  forming  a  Christian  community  in  the 

1  Quarterly  Review,  voL  xciv.  p.  184. 
*  Robert  Hall's  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  1S4. 


TO  NATIONS.  265 

Sandwich  Islands,  which  would  on  the  whole  bear  advantageous 
comparison  with  that  of  the  best  regulated  societies  of  the  old 
world,1  their  Socinian  neighbours  were  utterly  indifferent  to  the 
claims  of  the  Pagan  world.  While,  according  to  Dr.  Pierce,  one 
of  themselves,  their  settled  ministers  had,  in  the  course  of  the 
years  1812-1846,  decreased  from  138  to  124,  those  of  orthodox 
opinions  had  in  the  same  period  increased  from  197  to  417.  A 
writer  who  quotes  these  statistics  remarks  that  Unitarianism  had 
made  little  progress  in  the  other  States, — that  its  professors  show 
little  interest  in  propagating  their  faith, — and  that  during  the 
years  to  which  Dr.  Pierce  refers,  evangelical  Christianity  had 
given  existence  to  the  Home  and  Foreign  Bible  and  Tract  So 
cieties,  and  had  covered  the  entire  West  with  churches,  academies, 
and  schools,  while  Unitarianism  had  maintained  a  kind  of  dying 
life  almost  exclusively  within  a  single  State.2  The  want  of  dif 
fusive  and  moral  power  in  the  creed  as  held  in  this  country,  was 
fully  exposed  by  Hall  and  Fuller,  till  its  friends,  probably  pro 
voked  by  such  strictures,  and  constrained  by  surrounding  example, 
were  led  to  make  some  feeble  attempts  to  extend  their  views. 
Altogether  it  appears  that  Unitarianism  is  a  parasitic  plant  which, 
having  no  hold  of  the  soil,  has  struck  its  roots  into  other  plants, 
and  thence  derives  its  scanty  nourishment  and  feeble  growth. 
Where  would  have  been  its  fruits,  such  as  they  are,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  trees  of  life  and  their  healthful  atmosphere,  from 
which  it  has  received  aliment  and  support  1 

Nor  is  the  Protestantism  which  steers  a  middle  course  between 
the  Socinian  and  Evangelical  schemes  fitted  to  make  much  head 
against  social  evils.  We  refer  to  the  creed  intended  by  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  when  he  represents  those  who  preached  works,  or  the 
mere  regulation  of  outward  acts,  as  having  comparatively  failed 
to  make  a  favourable  impression  on  public  morals.3  This  creed 
has  been  fully  tried  in  Protestant  countries  on  the  Continent  as 
well  as  in  England  and  Scotland,  for  both  abroad  and  at  home 
there  have  been  predominant  classes  who  have  avowed  and  de 
fended  it,  notwithstanding  that  they  have  subscribed  another  and 
a  better.  And  we  have  only  to  look  to  the  extensive  symbolizing 

•  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xciv.  p.  61.  2  Christian  Times,  Jan.  27, 1854. 

'•'  tTfmmrs,  vol.  i.  ]>.  411. 


266  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  SABBATH  TO  NATIONS. 

of  continental  Protestantism  with  Romanism  or  with  infidelity, 
and  to  the  utter  inefficacy  of  High  Churchism  in  England,  and  of 
Moderatism  in  Scotland  to  leaven  our  people,  not  to  mention 
foreigners,  with  Christian  principle  and  character,  to  be  convinced 
that  "the  pure  religion"  which  the  best  interests  of  society 
demand  has  yet  to  be  named. 

That  "  pure  religion"  is  principally  to  be  found  where  the  doc 
trines  of  the  Reformation  are  in  good  faith  embraced,  as  they  are 
by  many  on  the  Continent,  by  the  evangelical  clergy  and  people 
of  the  established  churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  by  far  the 
larger  proportion  of  the  dissenters  of  both  countries,  and  by  great 
numbers  in  North  America,  to  whom  might  be  added  our  Protest 
ant  missionaries  to  a  man.  It  is  by  the  men  of  these  views  that 
all  our  great  institutions  for  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  for 
Christianizing  the  heathen,  and  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
neglected  of  all  classes  at  home,  have  been  originated  and  are 
sustained.  In  almost  every  scheme  for  promoting  the  temporal 
good  of  society,  it  is  men  of  these  views  that  take  the  lead  and  the 
labour.  And  it  is  persons  of  this  class  who,  fully  maintaining  and 
carrying  out  the  principles,  most  largely  experience  the  blessings 
of  the  Sabbatic  rest  as  these  principles  and  blessings  are  thus 
associated  :  "  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the  Sabbath,  from 
doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy  day ;  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  de 
light,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honourable  ;  and  shalt  honour  him, 
not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  rinding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor 
speaking  thine  own  words  :  then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the 
Lord ;  and  I  will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
earth,  and  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father ;  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it."1 

i  IBS.  Iviii.  IS,  1& 


DIVINE  ORIGIN  OP  THE  SABBATH.  267 


CHAPTER  VII. 

APPLICATION  OF  PRECEDING  PRINCIPLES  AND  FACTS  IN 
PROOF  OF  THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"If  this  counsel  or  work  be  of  man,  it  will  come  to  nought;  but  if  it  be  of  God 
ye  cannot  overthrow  it."— GAMALIEL. 

FROM  the  principles  and  facts  set  forth  in  the  immediately  pre 
ceding  part  of  this  volume,  it  appears  that  a  weekly  holy  day 
cannot  be  dispensed  with,  if  health,  intelligence,  religion,  virtue, 
and  happiness  be  of  importance  to  mankind.  There  are  some, 
however,  who  accord  to  the  institution  no  slight  measure  of  the 
credit  due  to  it  as  an  instrument  of  good,  without  yielding  up 
their  minds  to  the  faith  of  its  Divine  authority.  Such  persons, 
it  seems  to  us,  neglect  to  follow  out  the  light  of  evidence  to  its 
legitimate  conclusions,  and  thus  subject  themselves  to  the  imputa 
tion  of  inconsistency.  Let  us,  following  that  light,  attempt  to 
show,  that  the  considerations  which  evince  the  excellence  and 
utility  of  the  weekly  rest,  concur  with  other  things  in  attesting 
that  it  is  the  contrivance,  appointment,  and  charge  of  Heaven. 

"  Paley  has  deduced  an  argument,  for  this  world  being  the 
work  of  an  intelligent  cause,  from  the  relation  of  sleep  to  night. 
He  says,  « It  appears  to  me  to  be  a  relation  which  was  expressly 
intended.  Two  points  are  manifest ;  first,  that  the  animal  frame 
requires  sleep  ;  secondly,  that  night  brings  with  it  a  silence,  and 
a  cessation  of  activity,  which  allows  of  sleep  being  taken  without 
interruption,  and  without  loss.'  .  .  .  But  what  the  rest  of  sleep 
is  to  the  body,  the  repose  of  the  Sabbath  is  to  the  soul.  An  argu 
ment  less  apparently  demonstrative,  because  more  refined  and  in 
tellectual,  might  be  deduced  from  the  appointment  of  the  Sabbath, 
that  God  is  the  Author  of  revelation"  [and  of  the  Sabbath],  "  as 
well  as  that  He  is  the  Author  of  nature  from  the  relation  of  sleep  to 


268  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

night.  The  body  demands,  by  the  necessity  of  its  nature,  a  certain 
period  of  relaxation  from  toil ;  but  the  mind,  ever  active,  though  not 
always  active  to  [good]  purpose,  requires  a  positive  rest,  prescribed 
to  it,  in  order  that,  by  interrupting  the  ordinary  chain  of  its 
thoughts,  it  may  profit  by  a  cessation  of  its  usual  cares  ;  and, 
since  it  cannot  cease  to  think,  may  at  least  have  a  complete  change 
of  thought,  at  fixed  intervals,  which  is  its  proper  repose.  Nor 
by  this  cessation  or  interchange  of  labour  is  the  work  which  it  is 
pursuing  delayed.  The  mind  reverts  with  a  new  energy  to  the 
object  which  for  a  season  it  has  ceased  to  pursue.  These  pauses 
are  common  in  the  development  of  all  organized  beings." 1 

The  Sabbath  must  have  been  the  suggestion  of  infinite  bene 
volence.  Human  beings  are  naturally  selfish,  but  the  selfish 
think  only  of  themselves,  and  are  neither  inventive  nor  ready, 
neither  exuberant  nor  painstaking,  with  expedients  for  relieving 
the  misery  or  promoting  the  happiness  of  others.  Many,  indeed, 
of  the  race  have  become  truly  benevolent,  but  we  have  no  evidence 
that  they  acquired  the  character  in  any  other  way  than  through 
the  religion  of  the  Sabbath.  It  is  only  in  countries  where  that 
religion  has  existed  that  benevolent  institutions  have  been 
known.2  It  is  in  the  lands,  at  least,  in  which  the  Sabbath  flour 
ishes  that  charity  abounds.  It  is  the  classes  and  individuals  of  these 
lands  who  reverence  the  institution  that  are  pre-eminent  for  bene 
ficence.  The  selfishness  of  man  would  not  originate  the  benignant 
airangement  ;  the  benevolence  of  man  came  too  late  to  contrive 
what  already  existed.  But  other  considerations  decide  the  matter 
not  only  against  human,  but  against  all  creature  claims.  The 
Sabbath  embraces  in  its  provisions  too  large  an  extent  of  good 
for  creatures  to  have  imagined,  evolves  in  its  course  beneficial 
tendencies  which  no  finite  mind  could  have  foreseen,  and  attains 
its  objects  with  an  unfailing  certainty  which  no  dependent  being 
could  have  commanded — proving  itself  to  have  had  its  source  in 
the  deep  thoughts  and  warm  feelings  of  a  Divine  heart. 

The  adaptations  of  the  institution  proclaim  it  to  have  been  the 
device  of  Divine  wisdom.  The  schemes  and  works  of  man,  after 

1  Address  by  Douglas  of  Cavers  on  Slavery,  Sabbath  Protection,  etc.,  pp.  35-37. 
8  China  has  been  lately  held  to  be  an  exception  to  the  remark-,  but  on  gronnds  whicfc 
require  further  elucidation. 


PROOFS  FROM  REASON.  2S9 

the  greatest  care  and  labour  have  been  expended  on  them,  exhibit 
palpable  marks  of  imperfection,  but  the  Sabbath  has  never  needed 
improvement.  Human  legislation,  regulated  as  it  is  by  endlessly 
diversified  and  continually  changing  peculiarities  of  place  and 
time,  must  frequently  be  enlarged,  modified,  or  abrogated,  but  the 
Sabbath  has  for  ages  stood  out  from  week  to  week  a  reproach  to 
all  earthly  ordinances — a  glorious  monument  of  unerring  legis 
lative  skill.  While  other  regular  divisions  of  time — as  day  and 
night,  the  month  and  year — were  made  to  man's  hand  in  nature, 
there  was  nothing  of  this  kind,  nothing  in  the  revolutions  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  to  guide  him  to  the  adoption  of  the  seventh  day 
for  any  purpose,  but,  nevertheless,  the  week,  including  in  not  a 
few  instances  a  sacred  day,  has  prevailed  in  many  parts  of  the 
world  from  a  remote  antiquity.  No  people  without  a  Sabbath 
have  ever  of  their  own  impulse  introduced  it.  After  a  long-con 
tinued  experience  of  its  value  in  some  countries,  there  are  numer 
ous  instances  in  which  persons  show  sometimes  by  their  language, 
more  frequently  by  their  conduct,  that  they  account  it  a  burden 
and  a  curse.  Notwithstanding  all  the  regard  which  many  have 
ever  entertained  for  it,  its  excellence  is  still  far  from  being  fully 
understood  and  appreciated  even  by  the  wise  and  good.  How 
much  light  has  but  lately  been  thrown  on  its  importance  to  the 
welfare  of  society  !  That  a  seventh  day  of  sacred  rest  renders 
the  labour  of  six  days  more  remunerative  than  would  be  that  of 
seven  under  a  system  of  unremitting  toil,  and  that  it  interposes  a 
barrier  against  the  enslaving  of  mankind,  are  proofs  of  the  pro 
found  wisdom  of  the  institution  which  it  was  reserved  for  recent 
times  to  bring  into  clearer  view,  if  not  entirely  to  discover.  It  is 
one  thing,  moreover,  to  see  and  unfold  the  merits  of  a  discovery, 
and  altogether  another  thing  to  make  it.  To  the  origination,  in 
short,  of  an  institution,  proved  to  be  adapted  to  the  whole  con 
stitution  and  circumstances  of  mankind,  there  was  indispensable 
so  large  a  measure  of  knowledge,  as  to  make  it  manifest  that  the 
claim  by  the  Author  of  the  Sabbath  to  omniscience  itself  would 
be  no  arrogance,  and  His  exercise  of  the  attribute  no  difficulty. 

The  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  is  a  further  evidence  of  its  Divine 
original.  The  ordinance  is  too  sacred  for  human  beings  to  desire 
or  even  to  think  of.  They  could  have  imagined  and  wished  a 


270  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

day  of  rest,  but  judging  from  the  views  and  feelings  of  those  who 
slight  or  scorn  the  present  Sabbath  (and  the  formation  of  a  differ 
ent  character  is  one  of  the  results  and  triumphs  of  the  institution), 
there  is  in  it,  as  a  day  of  worship  and  holy  rest,  a  class  of  quali 
ties  the  reverse  of  those  which  man  esteems  and  loves.  But  "  of 
thorns  men  do  not  gather  figs,  nor  of  a  bramble-bush  gather  they 
grapes.  An  evil  man  out  of  the  evil  treasure  of  his  heart  bringeth 
forth  that  which  is  evil."  The  Sabbath  was  evidently  made  for 
man,  but  not  by  man.  Its  author  must  have  been  divinely  holy, 
as  well  as  divinely  benignant,  intelligent,  and  wise. 

Our  position  is  established  also  by  the  justice  of  an  arrangement 
which  shows  no  respect  of  persons,  prescribing  the  same  duties 
and  securing  the  same  privileges  alike  to  rich  and  poor,  kings  and 
subjects. 

The  preceding  proofs  respect  the  Sabbath  as  a  contrivance,  to 
the  conception  and  origination  of  which,  as  has  been  shown,  only 
a  Divine  being  was  competent.  But  to  be  of  any  avail,  the 
institution  must  be  adopted  and  employed  by  those  for  whose 
benefit  it  was  designed.  That  they  would  never  have  appropriated 
the  gift  in  its  full  extent  without  an  external  and  controlling  in 
fluence  exerted  on  their  minds  and  hearts,  is  manifest  not  only 
from  the  dislike  which  men  feel  to  a  holy  day,  but  from  the  igno 
rance  and  pride  by  which  they  are  led  into  the  greatest  divergences 
of  opinion  and  practice  on  all  sorts  of  subjects.  The  Sabbath 
must  be  socially  as  well  as  personally  received  and  observed.  And 
what  but  Divine  power  could  bring  so  many  various  individuals, 
with  all  their  supposed  conflict  of  interests  as  masters  and  ser 
vants,  employers  and  employed,  sovereigns  and  subjects,  to  agree 
ment  respecting  the  propriety,  the  time,  and  the  engagements  of 
such  an  institution,  or  what  but  Divine  authority  could  secure 
for  it  an  unquestioning  submission  ?  Without  that  commanding 
influence,  the  discrepancy  of  sentiment  on  the  matter  must  have 
produced  a  Sabbath  of  so  endless  a  diversity  of  season  and  observ 
ance  as  to  contain  the  elements  of  its  speedy  dissolution,  or  rather 
must  have  prevented  the  introduction  of  a  Sabbath  altogether. 
The  remarkable  harmony,  however,  among  men  of  many  ages  and 
countries  with  respect  to  the  proportion  of  time,  the  day,  and  the 
duties  of  a  periodical  rest — a  harmony  which  has  frequently  awed 


PROOFS  FROM  REASON.  271 

its  enemies  into  respect — points  not  only  to  Divine  wisdom  as 
contriving  the  institute,  but  to  Divine  power  and  authority  as 
giving  it  establishment.  Since  writing  these  remarks  we  are 
happy  to  find  that  we  can  confirm  and  adorn  the  views  expressed 
in  them  by  the  eloquent  words  of  Dr.  Croly.  "  The  divine  origin 
of  the  Sabbath  might  almost  be  proved  from  its  opposition  to  the 
lower  propensities  of  mankind.  In  no  age  of  the  world,  since 
labour  was  known,  would  any  master  of  the  serf,  the  slave,  or  the 
cattle,  have  spontaneously  given  up  a  seventh  part  of  their  toil. 
No  human  legislator  would  have  proposed  such  a  law  of  property, 
or,  if  he  had,  no  nation  would  have  endured  it.  ...  The  Sabbath 
in  its  whole  character  is  so  strongly  opposed  to  the  avarice,  the 
heartlessness,  and  the  irreligion  of  man,  that,  except  in  the  days 
of  Moses  and  Joshua,  it  has  probably  never  been  observed  with 
due  reverence  by  any  nation  of  the  world."1 

In  the  awe  with  which,  as  just  remarked,  the  institution  inspires 
the  hearts  of  its  enemies,  we  discover  another  testimony  to  its 
superhuman  ordination  and  character.  The  inconsistency  is  not 
in  our  statement,  but  in  the  person's  own  mind,  when  we  say 
that  the  same  individual  may  feel  a  consciousness,  and  utter  a 
confession  of  the  excellence  of  an  object  to  which  he  once  had, 
and  may  still  have  a  dislike.  Ovid  has  described  no  uncommon 
case  : 

"I  see  the  good,  and  I  approve  it  too — 
Condemn  the  wrong,  and  yet  the  wrong  pursue." 

There  are  many,  indeed,  who  profess  a  superiority  to  the  fears 
and  convictions  which  haunt  evil-doers,  and  especially  Sabbath- 
breakers,  affecting  to  regard  such  feelings  as  mere  superstition, 
and  who  in  the  midst  of  their  pleasures  would  seem  to  be  at  ease 
as  respects  responsibility  to  a  superior  Power.  But  certain  facts 
indicate  that  an  inward  disquiet  lies  at  the  root  of  their  apparent 
indifference  or  joy.  It  has  been  said,  that  the  disasters  which 
frequently  befall  the  profaners  of  the  Lord's  day,  are  owing  in 
part  to  a  sense  of  guilt,  which  so  enervates  and  confounds  them 
in  the  hour  of  danger  as  to  deprive  them  of  their  usual  power  to 
employ  the  means  of  escape.  Not  unfrequently,  too,  persons  who 
have  lived  in  the  neglect  of  religious  ordinances  and  laws  change 

i  Divine  Origin  and  Oo.igation  of  the  Sabbath  (1850),  p.  17. 


272  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

their  views  and  conduct,  and  then  divulge  the  truth,  that  under 
all  their  seeming  gaiety  they  have  been  wretched  men.  But  jus 
tice  overtakes  others  in  their  profligate  career,  and  they  become 
amenable  to  the  outraged  laws  of  their  country.  In  these  circum 
stances,  as  has  often  been  observed,  the  confession  is  very  com 
monly  made,  that  their  fall  and  ruin  are  traceable,  in  particular, 
to  one  great  error — that  of  contemning  the  sacred  day.  The 
acknowledgment  is  entitled  to  all  credit.  It  has  not  been  bribed 
or  wrung  from  them.  It  has  been  given  spontaneously,  and  at  a 
time  when  there  is  no  possible  temptation  to  falsehood.  Why 
those  persons  uniformly  fix  on  the  desecration  of  the  Lord's  day 
as  the  primary  cause  of  their  undoing  can  be. explained  only  on 
these  two  suppositions — that  what  they  utter  is  true,  and  that 
there  is  a  potency  of  evil  in  their  conduct  proceeding  from  the 
despite  of  no  ordinary  blessing,  from  the  infraction  of  no  human 
law. 

Finally,  the  preservation  of  such  an  institution  in  such  a  world 
as  ours  affords  evidence  of  an  inward  vitality,  and  an  external 
guardianship,  that  are  more  than  human.  That  it  should  have 
been  continued  in  the  decayed  state  in  which  we  find  it  in  some 
heathen  countries,  is  a  testimony  to  its  original  power,  and  to  its 
deep  seat  in  the  wants  and  consciences  of  men.  But  that  it 
should  for  many  centuries  have  been  maintained,  as  in  other  cases 
it  has  been,  in  its  pristine  vigour,  is  a  fact  which  nothing  can 
explain  but  its  having  been  planted  and  cared  for  by  a  Divine 
husbandman.  The  Sabbath  has  had  to  contend  with  many  adverse 
elements  sufficient  to  have  long  ago  withered  any  production 
reared  and  tended  by  human  hands.  There  is  the  desire  of  change. 
There  is  the  aversion  to  holy  duties.  There  is  the  love  of  unre 
strained  pleasure.  There  is  a  grasping  avarice.  There  is  the 
strong  passion  for  worldly  eminence  and  fame.  Under  the  in 
fluence  of  some  one  or  other  of  these  feelings,  many  pervert  the 
institution — one  class  spending  the  day  in  amusement  and  revelry 
— another,  in  merchandise — a  third,  in  prosecuting  their  literary 
or  scientific  studies.  Many,  again,  compel  those  who  are  under 
their  authority  to  ply  their  exhausting  labours  that  they  them 
selves  may  be  enriched,  though  at  the  expense  of  the  ruined  health 
and  neglected  minds  and  morals  of  their  servants.  All  this,  which 


PROOFS  FROM  REASON.  273 

has  nearly  obliterated  a  holy  Sabbath  over  the  entire  continent  of 
Europe,  shows  how  little  patronage  such  a  day  receives  from  the 
world,  and  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  deterioration  which  in  any 
instance  it  has  suffered.  Whence  is  this  state  of  matters  not  uni 
versal  1  Whence  has  it  never  been  universal  ?  Whence  is  it  that 
the  institution  flourishes  in  some  places,  and  is  seen  springing  up 
in  others  where  it  had  been  trodden  down  1  The  only  answer  is, 
it  is  a  tree  which  has  been  planted,  and  is  under  the  care  of  the 
superintending  Providence, — of  Him  who,  while  in  justice  He 
removes  it  from  the  hands  of  violence,  is  in  mercy  disposed  not 
utterly  to  take  away,  but  even  to  cherish  and  restore  what  is  so 
medicinal  to  the  nations.  In  our  motto  we  have  applied  to  the 
Sabbath  the  words  of  the  sagacious  Gamaliel,  uttered  1800  years 
ago.  According  to  him,  Christianity  must  have  long  ago  perished 
if  it  had  been  of  men.  It  has  not  been  overthrown.  Neither 
has  the  Sabbath.  Let  his  warning  be  pondered  by  all  who  set 
themselves  against  the  friends  of  either  :  "  Eefrain  from  these 
men,  and  let  them  afone ;  lest  haply  ye  be  found  even  to  fight 
against  God." 


TESTIMOISTY  OF  EEVELATION  TO  A  SACKED 
AND  PEKPETUAL  SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DIVINE  INSTITUTION  OF  THE  SABBATH  AT  THE  CREATION, 
AND  ITS  OBSEEVANCE  BY  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man." 

THE  evidence  for  a  weekly  day  of  rest  and  devotion  is  of  great 
variety  and  amount.  Geography  points  to  traces  of  the  institution 
in  almost  every  region  of  the  globe.  History  records  its  early 
existence,  its  course  of  many  centuries,  and  its  remarkable  preser 
vation  amidst  the  countless  changes  and  hostile  influences  of 
society.  Physiology  concedes  its  sanitary  power.  Mental  philo 
sophy  proclaims  its  intellectual  adaptations.  Ethics,  law,  and 
biography,  together  attest  its  importance  to  man  as  a  moral  and 
religious  being ;  and  economic  science  acknowledges  its  intimate 
connexion  with  individual  comfort  and  social  prosperity.  Contri 
butions  such  as  these  are  of  no  slight  value  to  the  cause  which 
they  favour.  They  are,  independently,  capable  of  showing  that 
the  distribution  of  our  time  into  six  days  of  labour  and  one  of 
holy  rest  is  an  arrangement  too  long-lived,  too  wide-spread,  too 
wise,  pure,  and  benevolent,  to  have  "  sprung  of  earth."  They 
echo  the  announcements  of  Scripture.  They  ought  thus  to  confirm 
the  faith  of  the  Christian,  and  induce  unbelievers  to  bow  to  claims 
which  so  many  witnesses  concur  without  collusion  to  establish. 
It  is  no  depreciation,  however,  of  the  evidence  supplied  by  reason 
and  experience  on  behalf  of  the  institution,  to  say,  that  the  Sab- 

274 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  275 

bath  derives  its  best  support  and  defence  from  the  sacred  Scrip 
tures,  which  in  its  turn  it  so  eminently  serves  to  make  known. 
It  is  in  the  testimony  of  revelation  that  perfect  confidence  as  to 
the  Divine  origin  and  authority  of  the  ordinance  finds  its  inspira 
tion  and  strength,  and  it  is  there  alone  that  we  discover  the  in 
fallible  rule,  which  must  be  followed,  if  we  would  rightly  discharge 
tne  obligations,  and  fully  receive  the  blessings  of  the  day  of  rest. 
The  testimony  of  revelation  concerning  the  Sabbatic  institution 
may  be  comprised  under  three  heads — its  Divine  obligation  on 
mankind  in  all  time,  its  Duties,  and  its  Importance.  Following 
this  order,  we  proceed,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  illustration  of 
a  series  of  propositions  on  the  subject  of  the  Divine,  universal,  and 
permanent  obligation  of  the  institution. 

FIRST  PROPOSITION. THE  SABBATH  WAS  INSTITUTED  BY  GOD 

AT  THE  CREATION. 

In  the  Book  of  Genesis,  after  his  beautifully  simple  but  magni 
ficent  account  of  the  creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  the 
sacred  historian  proceeds  as  follows  : — "  Thus  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  were  finished,  and  all  the  host  of  them.  And  on  the  seventh 
day  God  ended  his  work  which  he  had  made  ;  and  he  rested  on 
the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had  made.  And  God 
blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it  :  because  that  in  it  he 
had  rested  from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made."1 

No  improvement  in  the  translation  would  affect  the  substantial 
meaning  of  these  words,  which  are  generally  admitted  to  be  a 
faithful  version  of  the  original  language.  A  critical  examination 
of  the  terms  employed,  and  the  light  of  parallel  texts,  would  only 
confirm  the  views  of  the  passage  which  a  first  reading  at  once 
ascertains. 

Without  dwelling  on  the  superlative  value  of  the  information 
here  and  in  the  preceding  chapter  for  the  first  time  recorded 
respecting  the  original  of  the  world  and  of  man,  let  us  mark  the 
leading  facts  as  they  bear  upon  our  subject. 

God  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he 
had  made.  As  the  Almighty  "  fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary," 

i  Gen.  ii.  1-3. 


276  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

and  as  "the  Father  worketh  hitherto"  in  the  production  of 
human  spirits,  and  in  the  sustentation  and  government  of  the 
universe,  his  rest  on  this  occasion  is  obviously  to  be  understood 
in  a  sense  compatible  with  the  constant  activity  and  worthy  of 
the  majesty  of  the  Creator — as  a  rest  not  from  all  work,  but 
from  the  one  work  specified — a  rest  of  cessation  and  satisfaction, 
not  of  languid  repose.1  He  who  afterwards  on  renewing  the 
face  of  the  earth  rejoiced  in  his  works,  did,  after  making  heaven 
and  earth  in  six  days,  rest  on  the  seventh,  and  "was  refreshed,"2 
regarding  with  complacency  and  delight  his  completed  creation. 

While  the  Creator  pronounced  all  the  works  of  the  six  days  to 
be  very  good,  he  reserved  his  benediction  for  the  day  of  rest. 
"  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day."  When  human  beings  utter 
words  of  blessing,  they  are  only  helpless  petitioners.  But  it  is 
the  practice,  as  it  is  the  prerogative,  of  the  Divinity  to  impart 
the  good  which  he  pronounces  with  his  lips.  And  he  blesses 
creatures  variously  according  to  their  natures  ;  men,  by  bestowing 
favours  which  rational  beings  can  alone  relish  and  enjoy ;  the 
lower  animals,  agreeably  to  their  limited  capacities,  opening  his 
hand  and  satisfying  the  desire  of  every  living  thing ;  and  "  things 
without  life,"  by  making  them  the  means  of  benefit  and  pleasure 
to  intellectual  and  sentient  creatures.  In  this  last-mentioned 
form  did  he  bless  the  seventh  day.  In  no  other  mode  could  un 
conscious,  insensible  time  be  blessed.  That  day  was  distinguished 
above  the  others  by  being  constituted  a  season  and  means  of  pecu 
liar  advantage  and  happiness. 

The  seventh  day  was  devoted  to  sacred  use,  "  God  sanctified 
it."  The  radical  idea  in  "  sanctify,"  as  the  word  is  employed  by 
the  inspired  writers,  is  separation  from  a  common  to  a  holy  pur 
pose,  consecration  to  the  Divine  service.3  Like  blessing,  sancti- 
fication  is  predicated  of  beings  according  to  their  natures.  As  all 
days  are  God's,  and  ought  to  be  spent  in  his  work,  the  sanctify  - 

1  Shabath,  as  in  1  Sam.  xxv.  9  ;  Job  xxxii.  1,  "  signifieth  not  such  a  rest  as  wherein 
one  sitteth  and  doeth  nothing,  as  the  word  Noach  doth,  but  only  a  resting  and  ceasing 
from  that  which  he  did  before." — Leigh,  Critica  Sacra,  sub.  voc.  "It  implies  resting 
from,  not  in  work." — New  Translation,  by  De  Sola,  etc. 

»  Ex.  xxxi.  17. 

3  "  Ab  usu  et  statu  communiad  peculiarem  et  sacrum  separare." — Eichlwrn.  "  Usi- 
bus  divinis  accommodavit— a  communi  et  pr  jfano  nsu  segregavit  in  usum  sacrum— ad 
cultum  Dei  destinavit."— Kirch.  Concord. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  277 

ing  of  the  seventh  in  particular  would  be  a  meaningless  expres 
sion,  unless  it  indicated  a  special  appropriation  of  the  day  to  the 
worship  and  glory  of  the  Creator. 

The  benediction  and  sanctification  of  the  seventh  day  had  re 
spect  to  the  Divine  rest  as  their  reason  or  cause.  "  God  blessed 
the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested 
from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made,"  or,  as  we  have 
it  in  the  Decalogue,  "  In  six  days  the  Lord  made  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  the  sea  and  all  things  therein,  and  rested  the  seventh 
day,  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath-day  and  hallowed 
it."1  The  holy  day  recalls  its  occasion.  They  are  linked  to 
gether.  Nor  is  the  association  incidental  It  is  designed.  It 
was  manifestly  the  purpose  and  arrangement  of  the  Author  of 
nature,  that  the  day  which  saw  the  creation  finished  should  be 
sat  apart  in  honour  of  the  great  work,  or  rather  of  himself  as  its 
Architect. 

The  institution  thus  appointed  at  the  creation  was  designed  to 
be  a  law,  right,  and  blessing  to  mankind  in  all  time.  There  is 
every  indication  of  universality  in  the  primaeval  arrangement. 
The  example  of  the  Almighty  in  working  and  resting  was  in 
scribed  as  it  were  on  the  creation  itself,  and  partook  of  the  ex 
tent  and  durability  of  the  workmanship  of  his  hands.  It  was  an 
example  addressed  to  the  father  of  mankind,  and  through  him  to 
all  his  posterity.  That  would  have  been  no  blessing  to  Adam 
himself,  and  none  to  any  other,  which  should  light  and  expend 
itself  on  one  solitary  day.  The  blessing  was  pronounced  on  that 
day  as  the  first-fruits  of  all  sacred  time.  It  applied  as  truly  as 
the  blessing  of  marriage  to  Adam's  descendants.  The  seventh 
portion  of  time  was  hallowed  for  all  ages,  when  the  earliest  in 
stalment  was  sanctified.  Having  been  prior  to  all  special  dispen 
sations  of  religion,  the  Sabbatic  institution  is  not  liable  to  perish 
with  any.  The  appointment  is  couched  in  terms  that  prove  its 
capacity  of  incorporation  with  every  economy.  Its  "  sound  went 
into  all  the  earth,  and  its  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world," 
calling  upon  every  human  being  to  remember  his  Creator,  and  to 
enjoy  the  liberty  and  rest  which  He  has  provided  for  all  who  are 
willing  to  receive  them.  Who  has  any  reason  or  authority  for 

»  Ex  ».  11. 

IS 


278  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

affirming  that  the  law  has  become  obsolete — that  it  does  not  re 
main  in  full  force  on  the  human  family  2  And  who  may  not,  on 
the  best  grounds  and  with  perfect  confidence,  say,  "  Here  is  an 
indefeasible  right  on  which  I  take  my  stand  against  every  at 
tempt  to  deprive  me  of  the  seventh  part  of  my  time — here  is  a 
boon  which,  as  divinely  conferred,  no  man  can  justly  or  with  im 
punity  take  away  ?" 


SECOND    PROPOSITION. WHILE    NO    FORMAL    NOTICE    OF     THE 

INSTITUTION  OCCURS  IN  THE  SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY  TILL 
THE  CHILDREN  OF  ISRAEL  HAVE  DEPARTED  FROM  EGYPT, 
AND  COMMENCED  THEIR  JOURNEYINGS  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 
OF  ARABIA,  CIRCUMSTANCES  ARE  RECORDED,  WHICH,  BUT 
FOR  THE  ANTECEDENT  INSTITUTION  AND  CONTINUED  OBLI 
GATION  OF  A  SACRED  SEVENTH  DAY,  COULD  NOT  HAVE  BEEN 
MENTIONED,  OR  EVEN  HAVE  EXISTED. 

Although  desirous  to  reserve  controversy  as  much  as  possible 
to  a  subsequent  stage  of  our  discussion,  and  meanwhile  to  present 
simply  the  evidence  for  a  permanent  Sabbath,  we  cannot  in 
justice  to  the  latter  object  avoid  reference  here  to  the  opinion 
maintained  by  Dr.  Heylyn,  Dr.  Paley,  and  others,  that  notwith 
standing  the  early  notice  in  Scripture  of  the  sanctification  by  the 
Creator  of  the  seventh  day,  its  actual  institution  as  a  Sabbath  did 
not  occur  till  twenty-five  centuries  thereafter.  It  appears  a 
remarkable  psychological  fact  that  the  mind  which  so  acutely 
detected  and  so  skilfully  collated  the  indications  of  design  in 
nature,  and  the  coincidences  between  the  Acts  and  the  Writings  of 
the  apostles,  should  have  seen  no  appointment  of  a  day  of  rest  in 
the  narrative  of  the  Divine  proceedings  at  tne  creation  of  the 
world,  and  not  even  the  slightest  allusion  to  such  a  day  in  the 
remaining  history  for  so  many  years.  Had  the  eye  been  as 
morally  single — as  purged  from  prejudice  in  favour  of  a  theory  as 
it  was  intellectually  penetrating,  might  it  not  have  discovered  the 
materials  for  a  Horce  Sabbaticce,  scarcely  less  interesting  and  con 
vincing  than  the  Horce  Paulince  ? 

One  of  the  circumstances  that  could  not  have  occurred  but  for 


TESTIMONY  OF  KEVELATION.  279 

the  primseval  institution  of  the  Sabbath  is  the  narrative  itself  of 
the  event,  considered  in  its  manner  and  place.  No  one  can 
suppose  that  the  sacred  writer  is  there  describing  what  was  not 
to  take  place  till  many  years  after  the  creation,  without  imputing 
to  him  either  incompetency  to  write  history  and  to  express  his 
own  thoughts,  or  a  disregard  of  truth,  inasmuch  as  he  has  intro 
duced  a  fact  in  such  a  connexion  and  in  such  terms  as  naturally 
and  necessarily  to  lead  us  into  the  serious  mistake  that  it  was 
contemporaneous  with  the  Creator's  rest  from  his  work  of  six 
days.  That  an  inspired  man  should  so  write  is  an  impossibility. 
The  interpretation,  therefore,  must  be  false.  How,  after  the 
light  which  the  transactions  of  Sin  and  Sinai  had  in  the  view  of 
Israel  shed  on  the  Sabbath,  the  words  describing  it  should  appear 
where  they  are  at  all,  is  to  be  explained  only  by  the  fact  and  im 
portance  of  its  early  institution. 

A  second  circumstance  that  presupposes  the  primitive  appoint 
ment  of  the  weekly  holy  day  is  the  respect  which  began  soon 
after  to  be  shown  for  the  septenary  number.  Let  it  be  observed 
that  it  was  the  Creator  himself,  in  denouncing  "sevenfold" 
vengeance  against  the  person  that  should  take  the  life  of  Cain,1 
who  first  employed  the  number  as  a  synonym  of  completeness  or 
perfection,  and  that  by  the  same  authority  it  continued  to  be 
signalized  in  the  arrangement  that  the  beasts  and  fowls  should 
be  selected  by  sevens  for  preservation  in  the  ark,  in  the  allotted 
periods  of  plenty  and  scarcity  in  Egypt,  in  the  prohibition  of 
leavened  bread  for  seven  days  in  the  passover,  and  in  many  other 
intimations  of  the  Divine  will  down  to  the  time  when  the  Apostle 
John  had  in  Patrnos  his  vision  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks, 
and  of  one  in  the  midst  of  them  like  unto  the  Son  of  man.  This 
use,  then,  of  the  number  was  no  superstitious  practice  of  human 
device.  It  was  Divine  speech,  and  it  had  an  important  meaning. 
But  that  meaning  could  not  consist  in  any  intrinsic  value  of  the 
number  above  others,  for  it  had  no  such  value.  The  first  mention 
of  it  in  a  new  application  stands  in  almost  immediate  connexion 
in  the  sacred  history  with  the  seventh  day  on  which  God  rested 
from  the  work  of  creation,  and  that  application  is  not  arbitrary, 
the  "sevenfold"  vengeance  being  a  vengeance  which  completes  its 

A  Gen.  iv.  15. 


280  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

purpose,  sheaths  the  sword,  and  is  satisfied,  even  as  the  Creator 
finished  his  work,  rested,  and  was  refreshed.  The  language 
addressed  to  Cain  had  a  meaning,  and  was  intended  to  be  under 
stood  by  all  readers  ;  but  where  is  the  signification  of  "  sevenfold" 
to  be  found,  if  not  in  the  preceding  context  1  The  meaning  was 
the  same  to  Cain  as  to  them.  And  he  and  they  are  presented 
by  the  historian  as  having  their  eyes  turned  to  the  same  great 
fact  of  a  day  of  rest,  blessed  and  sanctified  when  the  world  was 
made.  Nor  is  this  all.  That  a  marked  respect  for  the  septenary 
number  has,  by  the  Divine  example  and  sanction,  been  evinced 
alike  in  the  Pentateuch  and  in  the  Apocalypse  is  a  proof  that  the 
Creator  will  have  his  name  remembered,  and  a  seventh  day  hal  • 
lowed  in  all  generations. 

No  less  significant  in  its  bearing  on  our  subject  is  the  observance 
by  the  patriarchs  of  the  weekly  division  of  time.  Noah  "  stayed 
seven  days"  three  several  times  before  he  "sent  forth  the  dove 
out  of  the  ark." 1  The  friends  of  Job  sat  down  with  him,  in  token 
of  their  sympathy,  seven  days  and  seven  nights.2  We  read  of  the 
"  week"  in  the  days  of  Laban  and  Jacob.3  And  Joseph  made  a 
mourning  for  his  father  seven  days.4  But  whence  this  regard  to 
periods  of  seven  days  1  There  was  nothing  in  nature  to  suggest 
or  recommend  it  for  adoption  any  more  than  there  was  some 
peculiar  excellence  in  the  number  "  seven"  to  secure  for  it  a 
preference  above  other  numbers.  If  there  had,  it  would  have 
been  even  more  generally  observed  than  it  is.  No  human  being 
would  independently  have  conceived  of  such  a  notation  of  time 
— no  number  of  human  beings  could  have  given  it  prevalence 
or  perpetuity.  The  history,  however,  leaves  no  room  for  specula 
tion.  It  informs  us  that  the  week  was  appointed  at  the  creation, 
not  by  any  provision  made  on  the  fourth  day  in  the  lights  which 
were  to  be  "  for  signs  and  seasons  for  days  and  years,"  but  by  the 
example  of  the  Creator,  who  occupied  six  days  in  making  the 
world,  rested  on  the  seventh,  blessed  and  sanctified  that  day — 
not  the  eighth,  or  following  days,  on  which  he  alike  rested  from 
creative  work ;  and  thus  prescribed  to  us  the  same  distribution  of 
time,  and  of  its  work  and  rest,  no  less  certainly  or  impressively, 
than  if  he  had  written  the  law  on  the  phenomena  of  nature. 

1  Gen.  viii.  »  Job  ii.  13.  »  Gen.  xxlx.  27,  28.  <  Gen.  L  10. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  281 

From  these  facts  we  are  led  to  infer  what  the  week  was  which 
Noah  and  others  observed,  and  why  they  so  regulated  their  time. 
The  week,  as  denned  by  the  Creator,  consisted  of  six  days  for  work 
and  a  day  of  rest — of  sacred  rest ;  and  such  also  must  have  been 
the  week  of  the  patriarchs.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  for  this  cycle 
of  time  to  be  observed  in  some  form  after  its  Sabbath  has  ceased, 
but  if  the  seventh  day  was  and  still  is  connected  with  sacred 
rites  among  heathen  nations,  is  it  conceivable  that  Noah  could 
have  forgotten  or  disregarded  so  important  an  alliance  1  His  own 
piety,  the  language  of  God  announcing  to  him  that  in  seven  days 
he  would  cause  it  to  rain  on  the  earth,  and  the  warrant  which  the 
historian  has  given  us  for  tracing  a  connexion  of  cause  and  effect 
between  the  week  as  originally  appointed,  and  the  week  as  ob 
served  by  the  patriarch,  all  forbid  the  supposition  that  he  did  not 
work  for  six  days,  and  rest  and  worship  on  the  seventh! 

The  prevalence  of  public  worship,  with  its  various  accessories, 
necessarily  implies  the  obligation  and  observance  of  a  Sabbath. 
Keligious  assemblies  are  convened.  Cain  and  Abel  come  together 
for  Divine  service.  They  were  not  the  only  persons  present,  as 
appears  from  Cain's  postponement  of  his  murderous  deed  till  he 
and  his  victim  were  out  of  the  sight  of  others  in  the  field.  This 
is  the  first  recorded  instance  of  public  worship,  if  we  may  apply 
that  epithet  to  a  convocation  and  exercises  on  the  small  scale  of 
an  infant  society.  In  the  time  of  Seth  "  men  began  to  call  on 
the  name  of  the  Lord  •"  not  that  they  for  the  first  time  professed 
or  practised  religion,  as  the  history  proves,  but  that,  whether  they 
were  then  called  by,  or  invoked  the  name  of  the  Lord,  their  pro 
fession  and  practice  had  become  more  public.  Twice  are  we  told 
in  the  Book  of  Job  that  "  the  sons  of  God  came  to  present 
themselves  before  the  Lord,"  and  that  Satan,  as  he  has  often  since 
done,  "  came  also  among  them."  The  services  on  such  occasions 
are  mentioned.  There  were  sacrifices  and  offerings,  which  formed 
so  important  a  part  of  ancient  worship.  Cain  and  Abel  bring 
offerings.  Noah,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  erect  altars,  and 
devote  victims  thereon  to  Jehovah.  Bishop  Patrick,  in  expound 
ing  the  account  of  the  offerings  of  Cain  and  Abel,  observes  that 
the  Hebrew  word  for  brougfa  is  used  never  in  reference  to  private 
and  domestic  sacrifices,  but  always  of  such  as  were  in  the  times  of 


282  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  Jewish  polity  brought  to  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the 
congregation.  The  friends  of  Job  were  divinely  instructed  to  offer 
up  for  themselves  a  burnt-offering  of  seven  bullocks  and  of  seven 
rams.  Instruction,  too,  was  communicated  in  the  assemblies  for 
worship.  Job  had  "  instructed  many  and  strengthened  the  weak 
hands,"  and  where  though  not  exclusively  he  had  done  so  is  inti 
mated  in  his  words,  "  I  stood  up  and  I  cried  in  the  congregation." 
Noah  was  a  preacher  of  righteousness.  We  read  also  of  the 
sacraments  of  circumcision  and  the  passover — and  of  a  priesthood 
with  tithes  for  its  maintenance.  As  there  was  a  law  for  the 
consecration  of  property  and  of  a  certain  proportion  of  it  to  the 
service  of  God,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  there  would  be  one  for 
the  consecration  of  a  certain  amount  of  time  to  the  same  purpose. 
For  all  this  worship  understood  places  of  convocation  were 
requisite.  '  Cain  and  Abel  "  came  together  into  one  place."  It 
is  chiefly  the  scene  of  public  ordinances  that  is  favoured  with  the 
presence  of  the  Lord,  from  which  Satan  is  said  twice  to  have  gone 
forth,  and  Cain  once  and  for  ever.  And  even  more  necessary  must 
have  been  appointed  places  of  worship  when  men  began  on  a  large 
scale  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.  But  set  times  were 
also  indispensable.  Order  and  fixed  places  demanded  them.  If 
the  sons  of  Job  had  their  days  for  feasting,  we  cannot  reasonably 
doubt  that  the  sons  of  God  had  their  days  for  worship.  And  it 
was  so.  "  There  was  a  day  when  the  sons  of  God  came  to  present 
themselves  before  the  Lord."  It  was  "in  process  of  time,"  or 
rather,  in  the  end  of  days,  that  Cain  and  Abel  brought  their 
offerings  unto  the  Lord.  We  might  plead  that  the  time,  like  the 
age  of  a  very  young  child,  "an  infant  of  days,"1  admitted  of 
reckoning  not  by  years,  months,  or  weeks,  but  by  days.  But  it 
is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  that  the  language  unquestionably 
means  an  appointed  season.  We  are  informed  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  that  Abel  was  accepted  because  he  offered  in  faith, 
consulting  the  Divine  will  in  regard  to  the  matter,  circumstances, 
and  principle  of  the  service.  Cain  was  blamed,  not  for  error  as 
to  the  time  or  place,  but  for  the  state  of  his  mind,  and  the  blood 
less  nature  of  his  offering.  We  can  conceive  him  overawed  by  the 
appointed  day  of  rest  and  worship,  and  induced  by  the  customary 
i  Isa.  Ixv.  20. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  283 

suspension  of  labour  into  a  compliance  with  the  law  and  the 
custom,  but  we  cannot  conceive  of  so  secular  a  character  leaving 
his  farm  on  working  days  for  the  purpose  of  appearing  at  the 
altar  of  God.  And  the  historian  here  again  has  warranted  the 
conclusion  that  the  time  of  these  offerings  was  the  seventh 
day.  He  has  recorded  the  consecration  of  that  day  to  rest  and 
holy  use,  and  must  have  known  that,  in  proceeding  soon  after 
to  mention  the  first  case  of  social  worship,  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  for  his  readers  to  take  for  granted  that  on  this 
occasion  the  day  so  set  apart  would  be  applied  to  its  appropriate 
purpose.  Aware  that  such  was  the  inference  which  would  be 
drawn  from  his  manner  of  writing,  has  he  not  sanctioned  that 
inference  ? 

Our  position  is  confirmed  by  the  remarkable  instances  of  piety 
and  virtue  which  distinguished  the  period  under  review.  Is  it 
requisite  to  name  Enoch,  Noah,  Melchizedek,  Job,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  Joseph,  Moses,  and  Aaron  1  It  was  by  the  grace  of 
God,  and  in  the  observance  of  religious  institutions,  that  they 
became  what  they  were.  That  the  Sabbath  must  have  been  a 
principal  means  in  fostering  the  faith,  by  which  those  "  elders  ob 
tained  a  good  report,"  appears  from  the  felt  and  proved  necsesity  of 
a  periodical  day  of  rest  and  worship  to  the  religion  of  present  days. 
We  have  already  cited  the  acknowledgment  of  one  of  the  best  men 
whom  our  age  has  produced — Edward  Bickersteth — that,  but  for 
a  weekly  day  given  as  entirely  as  possible  to  God,  religion  would 
soon  have  abandoned  him.  And  all  who  in  any  measure  resemble 
that  excellent  individual  will  readily  indorse  the  remark.  To  con 
ceive  that  the  patriarchs,  who  were  men  of  like  passions,  men  ex 
posed  to  like  temptations,  toils,  and  sufferings,  with  others,  could 
maintain  for  centuries  a  holy  and  happy  life,  without  the  stimulus 
and  refreshment  of  the  Sabbath,  is  to  suppose  a  case  which,  if 
true,  would  prove  the  uselessness  of  the  institution  in  any  circum 
stances,  but  which,  in  fact,  is  a  simple  impossibility  and  a  mere 
dream. 

The  long  life  and  prosperity  attained  by  good  men  in  primitive 
times  utter  the  same  language.     It  was  the  arrangement  of  Pro 
vidence,  for  important  ends,  that  those  men  should  live  "  many 
days,"  and  "  see  good."     But  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that 


284  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

their  longevity  was  miraculous,  or  their  success  achieved  indepen 
dently  of  their  own  efforts.  Both  blessings  were  bestowed  in 
connexion  with  their  diligence,  temperance,  and  care — both  are 
divinely  pledged  to  a  race  yet  to  come,  and  to  them  as  sacredly 
observant  of  the  weekly  rest.  What  has  been  said  in  this  volume 
of  the  necessity  of  the  institution  to  health,  prosperity,  to  mental, 
moral,  and  religious  culture,  while  it  applies  to  the  present  and 
the  future,  must  have  been  equally  true  of  the  remote  past. 

Once  more  :  there  are  incidents  in  the  history  of  Israel  in  Egypt 
which  give  indication  of  a  pre-existing  Sabbatism.  Moses  and 
Aaron,  by  the  direction  and  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  asked  of 
Pharaoh  to  let  the  Hebrews  go,  that  they  might  hold  a  feast  unto 
God  in  the  wilderness.  What  the  feast  was  appears  from  the 
answer  of  the  King  of  Egypt  to  their  demand  :  "  Wherefore  do 
ye,  Moses  and  Aaron,  let  the  people  from  their  works  1  Get  you 
unto  your  burdens.  Behold,  the  people  of  the  land  now  are  many, 
and  ye  make  them  rest  [sabbatize]  from  their  burdens ;"  and 
more  decisively  from  the  fact,  that  no  sooner  had  the  people  gained 
their  liberty  than  they  celebrated  "  the  rest  of  the  holy  Sabbath 
unto  the  Lord,"  feasting  on  the  bread  of  heaven.  Before  this 
time,  and  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Exode,  the  Passover  was  insti 
tuted,  where  the  Sabbatic  circumstances  of  "  seven  days,"  "  resting 
from  all  manner  of  work,"  and  "  holy  convocations, '  are  all  men 
tioned  as  matters  with  which  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  they 
were  well  acquainted. 

The  doctrine  of  a  paradisiacal  and  patriarchal  Sabbath  does  not 
depend  on  the  circumstances  now  reviewed,  but  however  imper 
fectly  they  may  have  been  stated,  we  venture  to  call  for  this  ver 
dict  from  our  readers,  that  but  for  the  antecedent  institution  and 
continued  observance  of  a  sacred  seventh  day.  these  circumstances 
could  not  have  existed. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  285 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SABBATH  PROMULGATED  FROM  SINAI  AS  ONE  OP 
THE  COMMANDMENTS  OF  THE  MORAL  LAW. 

"  Remember  the  Sabbath-Day  to  keep  it  holy." 

,_  WHEN  we  pass  from  the  Patriarchal  to  the  Jewish  dispensation 
of  religion,  we  discover  increasing  evidence  that  the  Sabbath  was 
designed  to  be  a  law  and  blessing  to  mankind.  That  under  an 
economy  so  different  in  many  respects  from  that  which  preceded  it, 
and  providing  so  many  additional  seasons  for  worship,  the  aboriginal 
holy  day  was  not  superseded,  but  retained  with  superadded  tokens 
of  respect,  was  a  circumstance  which  gave  promise  of  its  continu 
ing  to  hold  a  place  among  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  heaven  while 
the  world  itself  should  last ) 

THIRD    PROPOSITION. THE   SABBATH,  AS    INSTITUTED   AT    THE 

CREATION,  HAD    A    PLACE    ASSIGNED    TO    IT   IN    THE    MORAL 
LAW  GIVEN  FROM  SINAI. 

When  the  Almighty  gave  forth  the  Law  of  the  Decalogue  with 
his  own  voice  from  Sinai,  one  of  the  utterances  was,  "  Remember 
the  Sabbath-day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour, 
and  do  all  thy  work  ;  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  thy  God ;  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy 
son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant, 
nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates  ;  for  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that 
in  them  is,  and  .rested  the  seventh  day  :  wherefore  the  Lord 
blessed  the  Sabbath-day,  and  hallowed  it." J 

.  x^.  9-11. 

18* 


286         DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

( That  the  Decalogue  was  not  even  as  a  code  prescribed  to  the 
Jews  only,  or  abrogated  along  with  the  other  laws  of  Moses,  but 
epitomizes  the  duty  of  human  beings  in  all  places  and  times, 
appears  from  the  distinction  conferred  in  Scripture  on  its  precepts 
above  the  other  co»"«»*"iflmffnfo  flftlivprp.d  to  f.hp.  Jp^fr^AnjVip — 
from  the  catholic  nature  of  the  precepts  themselves,  and  from 
their  declared  obligation  on  mankind. 

1.  The  Scriptures  have  in  various  and  unequivocal  forms  done 
special  honour  to  the  law  of  the  ten  commandments.  J 

Its  promulgation  was  heralded  by  solemn  preparations.  "  Moses 
went  up  unto  God,  and  the  Lord  called  unto  him  out  of  the 
mountain."  He  is  instructed  to  inform  Israel  of  the  Divine  con 
descension  and  kindness  about  to  be  shown  to  them  in  the  cove 
nant  to  be  established  between  God  and  them,  and  the  necessity 
of  holy  obedience  on  their  part,  that  they  might  be  a  peculiar 
treasure  unto  him  above  all  people.  He  intimates  these  things 
to  the  people,  and  "  returns  their  words  unto  the  Lord."  For 
two  days  they  must  sanctify  themselves,  that  they  might  be 
ready  on  the  third  day,  on  which  Jehovah  was  to  come  down  in 
the  sight  of  all  the  people  upon  Mount  Sinai.  Death  was  to  be 
the  penalty  of  going  up  into  the  mount,  or  touching  the  border  of 
it.  "  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  third  day,  in  the  morning,  that 
there  were  thunders  and  lightnings,  and  a  thick  cloud  upon  the 
mount,  and  the  voice  of  the  trumpet  exceeding  loud,  so  that  all 
the  people  trembled.  And  Moses  brought  forth  the  people  out  of 
the  camp  to  meet  with  God  :  and  they  stood  at  the  nether  part 
of  the  mount.  And  Mount  Sinai  was  altogether  on  a  smoke, 
because  the  Lord  descended  upon  it  in  fire  :  and  the  smoke 
thereof  ascended  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace,  and  the  whole  moun 
tain  quaked  greatly."1 

In  these  circumstances  of  glory,  grandeur,  and  terrible  majesty, 
which  made  Moses  himself  say,  "  I  exceedingly  fear  and  quake," 
did  Jehovah  proclaim  with  his  own  lips  the  ten  commandments. 
And  thus,  not  only  by  priority  of  promulgation,  but  by  the  august 
solemnities  attending  it,  did  he  distinguish  these  commandments 
above  the  civil  and  ceremonial  statutes  which  were  afterwards 
privately  communicated  to  Moses.  "  These  words  the  Lord  spake 

1  Ex.  xix.  16-18. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  287 

unto  all  your  assembly  in  the  mount,  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire, 
of  the  cloud,  and  of  the  thick  darkness,  with  a  great  voice,  and 
he  added  no  more."  But  in  reference  to  "  the  law  of  command 
ments  contained  in  ordinances,"  it  is  said :  "  But  as  for  thee  stand 
thou  here  by  me,  and  I  will  speak  unto  thee  all  the  command 
ments,  and  the  statutes,  and  the  judgments  which  thou  shalt 
teach  them,  that  they  may  do  them  in  the  land  which  I  give 
them  to  possess  it."  * 

Nor  was  this  all.  It  is  possible  for  ingenuity,  under  a  partial 
bias,  to  make  too  much  of  the  following  circumstances  ;  but  to 
deny  that  they  impressively  teach  us  the  distinction  of  the  De 
calogue  above  the  other  laws  of  the  Jews  would  seem  to  be  "  a 
refusing  of  him  that  spake  on  earth."  The  law  of  the  ten  com 
mandments,  uttered  by  "  the  great  voice"  of  God,  was  also 
written  by  his  own  finger.  It  was  too  holy  and  glorious  to  be 
spoken  "  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,"  or  to  be  taken 
down  from  the  Divine  lips  by  any  human  amanuensis.  The  Law 
giver  must  proclaim  his  eternal  law  with  his  own  mouth,  and 
indite  it  with  his  own  hand.  Twice  was  it  so  written.  It  was 
inscribed  on  tablets  of  stone,  and  in  this  form  deposited  in  the 
ark,  with  all  the  security  which  incorruptible  shittim-wood,  and 
gold  overlaid  within,  without,  and  above,  could  provide,  and 
under  the  overshadowing  cherubim,  and  inviolable  Shechinah. 
But  no  Divine  voice  is  heard  announcing  the  laws  of  a  temporary 
polity,  or  of  a  shadowy  ritual ;  they  are  uttered  in  the  ears  of 
Moses  alone.  No  Divine  finger  traces  their  written  characters  ; 
for  this  the  hand  of  Moses  is  deemed  adequate.  They  are  com 
mitted  to  no  secure  and  precious  casket ;  but  placed  beside  the 
ark,  as  things  warranting  less  reverence  and  care,  and  ready  to  be 
removed.  In  all  these  honours  of  the  ten  "  words,"  the  fourth 
commandment  fully  shared.  Prefaced  by  the  same  solemnities, 
attended  by  thunders  and  lightnings,  articulated  by  the  Divine 
voice,  all  its  words  engraved  by  the  Divine  finger,  and  intrusted 
to  the  sacred  keeping  of  the  ark,  who  could  have  any  reason  to 
imagine  that  the  Sabbath  was  a  Jewish  rite,  belonging  entirely 
to  a  covenant  which  was  to  decay,  wax  old,  and  be  ready  to 
vanish  away  1 

i  Dent.  v.  22,  31. 


288          DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

The  language  in  which  the  laws  of  the  Jews  are  respectively 
mentioned  in  several  parts  of  Scripture  concurs  with  the  circum 
stances  now  mentioned  in  discriminating  them  from  each  other. 
Not  that  the  transitory  rules  of  their  politico-ecclesiastical  state 
are  ever  absolutely  depreciated.  They  are  included  in  "  the  right 
judgments  and  true  laws,  the  good  statutes  and  commandments," 
"  which  were  given  them  by  the  hand  of  Moses."  The  neglect  or 
transgression  of  them  was  held  to  be  an  act  of  contempt  to  the 
Divine  Lawgiver  and  King,  and  was  visited  with  severe  retribu 
tion.  The  loss  of  them  in  the  Captivity  was  deplored  as  one  of 
jtsrael's  chief  calamities  ;  their  recovery  is  promised  as  one  of  their 
greatest  mercies.  But  there  are  several  statements  which  indicate 
the  inferiority  of  these  privileges  to  others.  Thus  it  is  written  in 
Hosea,  "  For  I  desired  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice ;  and  the  know 
ledge  of  God  more  than  burnt-offerings  ;"x  and  in  Jeremiah,  "  I 
spake  not  unto  your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them  in  the  day  that 
I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  concerning  burnt-offer 
ings  and  sacrifice  ;  but  this  thing  I  commanded  them,  saying, 
Obey  my  voice."2  We  have  similar  statements  in  the  New  Tes 
tament  :  "  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !"  says 
our  Lord,  "  for  ye  pay  tithe  of  mint,  and  anise,  and  cummin,  and 
have  omitted  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy, 
and  faith  :  these  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  to  leave  the 
other  undone."3  How  different  the  terms  in  which  two  of  the 
apostles  speak  of  the  law  of  ceremonies  and  the  law  of  morality  ! 
In  referring  to  the  former,  the  apostle  Peter  asks,  "  Now,  there 
fore,  why  tempt  ye  God,  to  put  a  yoke  upon  the  neck  of  the  dis 
ciples,  which  neither  our  fathers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear?"4 
while  the  apostle  Paul  says  of  another  law — plainly  that  of  the 
Decalogue — "  Wherefore  the  law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment 
is  holy,  just,  and  good.  We  know  that  the  law  is  spiritual ;  I 
delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man."5  And  when 
mentioning  the  "  advantage" — the  profit  which  belonged  to  "  the 
Jew" — to  "  circumcision,"  largely  and  "  every  way,"  the  writer 
does  not  fail  to  give  the  preference  to  this  one  of  their  privileges, 
"  that  unto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  cf  God."  Compar- 

i  Hos.  vi.  6.  2  jer.  vii.  22,  23.  »  Matt.  Jodii  28. 

*  Acts  xv.  10.  *  Rom.  vii.  12,  14,  22. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  289 

ing  these  passages  with  each  other,  we  arrive  at  the  conclusion 
that  the  law  of  the  Decalogue  was  honoured  above  the  other  laws. 

2.  When  from  the  manner  in  which  the  laws  of  the  Jews  were 
delivered,  and  from  the  language  of  the  sacred  writers  respecting 
them,  we  turn  to  the  laws  themselves,  and  consider  their  nature 
and  designs,  we  discover  further  proofs  of  their  diversity,  and  that 
they  fall  under  two  distinct  classes. 

One  class,  consisting  of  ceremonial  and  political  regulations, 
were,  like  some  of  the  ordinances  of  Christianity,  manifestly  pro 
vided,  not  for  all  time,  but  for  the  period  of  the  particular  economy 
to  which  they  were  attached  and  adapted.  As  the  Lord's  Supper 
would  not  have  been  appropriate  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Jews, 
BO  neither  would  the  Passover  have  been  congruous  to  those  of 
Christians.  And  what  is  true  of  the  Passover  is  true  of  the  whole 
Jewish  polity  and  ritual,  which  were  suited  exclusively  to  a  certain 
spot  of  earth,  as  well  as  to  a  people  that  stood  in  special  relations 
to  the  Almighty,  and  had  extraordinary  functions  to  fulfil.  With 
the  enlargement  of  the  church  beyond  its  former  pale,  the  cessation 
of  the  theocracy,  and  the  accomplishment  of  the  objects  that  were 
to  be  attained  by  the  severance  of  Israel  from  other  nations,  the 
authority  of  their  rites  and  political  code  came  to  an  end.  This 
fact  we  read  in  the  utter  inapplicability  of  the  ancient  priesthood 
and  sacrifices  to  a  period  when  the  substance  of  these  shadows 
has  been  realized,  and  in  the  impossibility  that  a  system  which 
demanded  a  periodical  resort  to  Jerusalem  for  worship,  the  sus 
pension  of  agricultural  industry  at  certain  times,  and  various  other 
peculiarities,  should  be  practised  by  men  scattered  over  the  globe, 
and  having  no  miraculous  means  of  defence,  guidance,  or  support. 
And  yet  these  transitory  rules  were  as  really  binding  while  their 
occasion  lasted  as  any  of  the  most  enduring  commandments.  They 
were  founded  on  the  one  great  law  of  love  to  God  and  man,  in 
which  our  Lord  has  summarily  expressed  all  human  obligations. 
They  involved  in  them  the  undying  principles  of  truth  and  right 
eousness.  The  Mosaic  ritual  was  another  form  of  the  everlasting 
gospel.  Circumcision  and  the  Passover  pointed  to  the  most  mo 
mentous  facts  and  blessings,  as  do  still  our  baptism  and  eucharist. 
And  the  judicial  law  was  distinguished  by  its  perfect  equity,  and 
by  its  merciful  regard  to  the  stranger,  the  widow,  the  fatherless, 


290  DIVINE  AUTHOKITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

and  even  the  lower  animals.  The  change  which  befell  these  in 
stitutions  was  the  annulling,  not  of  principles  or  of  essential  law, 
but  of  certain  applications  of  them,  or  of  subsidiary  arrangements, 
when  the  object  of  such  bye-laws  had  been  gained. 

The  other  class  of  laws — those  of  the  ten  commandments — are 
evidently  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  adapted  and  necessary  not  to 
the  Jews  alone,  but  to  men  of  all  countries  and  times.  If  it  was 
right  for  the  Jew  to  have  no  god  but  the  one  living  and  true  God  ; 
to  employ  no  images  in  his  worship  ',  to  serve  Him  in  spirit  and 
in  truth  ;  to  spend  one  day  in  seven  in  resting  from  ordinary  work 
and  in  sacred  engagements ;  to  honour  parents  ;  to  have  respect 
to  the  life,  purity,  property,  and  reputation  of  himself  and  others, 
and  to  shun  all  covetous  desire, — the  same  things  must  be  right 
for  the  Gentile.  If  these  commands  were  holy  and  just,  and  could 
not  be  violated  without  sin  and  injury  as  regarded  the  former, 
they  are  plainly  as  holy  and  just,  and  the  transgression  of  them 
as  truly  deserving  of  blame  and  punishment  in  the  case  of  the 
latter.  If  they  were  good  to  the  one,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
how  they  are  not  good  to  the  other.  They  are,  in  fact,  the  laws 
of  nature  and  of  God  to  every  human  being.  All  this,  indeed,  is 
generally  admitted  as  to  nine  of  these  commandments.  The  only 
question  respects  the  fourth,  which  some  hold  to  be  only  one  of  a 
number  of  Jewish  rites,  and  doomed  to  share  their  fate. 

But  what  is  there  in  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  to  make  it  an 
exception  ?  It  provides  rest  from  labour.  Its  very  name  signi 
fies  a  ceasing  from  work.  Other  days  are  in  contradistinction 
from  it  called  working  days.  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and 
do  all  thy  work  :  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  :  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou  nor  thy  son 
nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant  nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy 
cattle  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates. "  But  for  six 
thousand  years  man  and  beast  have  been  subject  to  exhausting 
labour,  and  it  would  be  no  easy  task  to  show  how  the  Jews 
needed  a  day  of  rest  more  than  many  others  both  in  ancient  and 
in  present  times,  or  to  prove  that  Christianity  is  less  merciful  to 
toiling  man  and  his  weary  beast  than  was  any  preceding  dispen 
sation  of  religion.  That  the  law  of  rest  contemplated  a  much 
wider  range  of  application  than  the  people  of  Palestine  appears 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  291 

from  the  little  labour  which  for  forty  years  after  the  proclamation 
of  the  law  from  Sinai  they  had  to  perform,  and  from  their  mira 
culous  exemption  during  many  years  of  their  subsequent  history 
from  much  of  the  toil  of  other  men. 

The  Sabbath  was  also  an  appointed  season  of  mental  improve 
ment  and  spiritual  good.  And  was  the  soul  more  precious,  or  its 
salvation  and  improvement  more  important  in  Judea  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world — in  the  days  of  Moses  than  in  those  of 
Abraham  or  of  Christ  2  A  more  spiritual  economy  would  rather 
imply  the  necessity  of  higher  mental  cultivation,  and  of  greater 
attention  to  "the  things  that  belong  to  our  peace."  But  how 
would  it  be  possible  for  the  majority  of  our  people  to  acquire  the 
one  and  do  the  other  without  a  Sabbath  1  It  is  easy  to  talk  of 
the  freedom  from  restraint,  and  the  liberty  secured  by  Chris 
tianity  ;  but  unless  we  have  a  set  day  and  place  for  religious 
duties,  they  cannot  fail  to  be  neglected.  Christians,  as  much  as 
the  good  men  of  a  former  economy,  have  found  that  a  day  for 
a  periodical  dismissing  from  their  minds  of  all  secular  business 
and  cares,  and  for  directing  their  thoughts  and  regards  to  "  the 
things  that  are  above,"  is  indispensable  to  their  preparation  for  a 
future  world. 

The  Sabbath,  in  short,  was  a  stated  day  of  sacred  service  in 
honour  of  its  almighty  and  gracious  Author.  Having  rested 
from  his  work  of  creation,  God  blessed  and  sanctified  the  Sab 
bath-day.  But  the  creation  of  the  world  by  Jehovah  is  a  fact 
which  respects,  not  one  nation  only,  but  mankind,  and  the  belief 
of  which  is  fundamental  to  all  true  religion.  If  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Jews  to  remember  their  Creator,  no  less  was  it  the  duty  of 
the  patriarchs,  and  no  less  is  it  the  duty  of  men  now.  If  the 
one  stood  in  need  of  the  knowledge  of  God  as  the  maker  of  all 
things,  and  required  a  Sabbath  as  the  means,  equally  were  these 
blessings  indispensable  to  the  others.  If  the  Sabbath  in  old 
time  was  marked  more  than  ordinary  days  by  typical  shadows  of 
a  coming  Saviour,  is  it  reasonable  to  conceive  that  there  should 
be  no  day  to  remind  us,  by  its  returning  rest  and  meditations,  of 
the  great  Eedemption — a  work  which,  like  the  creation,  concerns 
men  '»f  every  time  and  class,  and  is  much  more  glorious  than  any 
other  work  or  deliverance  of  the  Almighty  ]  How  comprehen- 


292  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

sive  in  itself,  and  how  decisive  of  this,  as  of  other  questions  on 
the  subject,  is  the  maxim  of  our  Lord,  "  The  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man  1" 

3.  But  the  proof  of  the  permanence  of  the  Decalogue  is  com 
pleted  and  sealed  by  the  fact  of  the  declared  obligation  of  its  pre 
cepts  under  all  economies. 

Formally  given  from  Sinai,  it  had  been  the  rule  of  man's  con 
duct  from  the  beginning.  In  the  history  recorded  in  Genesis  we 
find  traces  of  the  knowledge  of  all  the  ten  commandments.  The 
offerings  of  Abel,  Noah,  and  others,  and  the  language  to  Abra 
ham,  "I  am  the  Almighty  God,  walk  before  me,  and  be  thou  per 
fect,"  prove  that  these  persons  were  acquainted  with  the  obliga 
tion  to  worship  and  serve  the  one  living  and  true  God.  That  the 
use  of  images  in  worship  was  forbidden  appears  from  Jacob's 
exhortation  to  his  family  to  put  away  strange  gods.  The  rever 
ential  regard  to  the  Divine  name  which  is  required  in  the  third 
commandment  is  implied  in  the  practice  of  administering  an  oath, 
and  in  the  prevalent  respect  for  promises  thus  solemnized.  The 
honour  due  to  parents  was  acknowledged  in  the  conduct  of  Noah's 
sons,  as  also  in  their  father's  prophetic  intimation  of  its  conse 
quences,  in  the  obedience  of  Isaac  to  Abraham,  and  in  other  in 
stances.  Cain  was  condemned  for  taking  the  life  of  his  brother, 
and  was  conscious  of  his  guilt,  while  at  the  commencement,  again 
as  it  were,  of  the  world,  after  the  flood,  the  law  subsequently  form 
ing  the  sixth  in  the  Decalogue  was  impressively  renewed.  The 
indignation  of  Jacob's  sons  on  account  of  the  dishonour  done  to 
their  sister,  the  father's  resentment  of  the  cruelty  by  which  they 
avenged  the  deed,  and  the  conduct  of  Joseph,  with  his  words, 
"How  can  I  do  this  great  wickedness,  and  sin  against  God?" 
showed  the  authority  of  the  seventh  as  well  as  of  the  sixth.  The 
protest  of  Joseph's  brethren  against  the  charge  of  theft  indicated 
that  both  parties  were  acquainted  with  the  precept  which  says, 
"Thou  shalt  not  steal."  The  same  knowledge  on  the  part  of 
Laban  and  Jacob  is  proved  in  the  matter  of  the  stolen  images. 
The  ninth  precept  was  known  even  to  Pharaoh,  the  contemporary 
of  Abraham,  as  was  manifested  by  his  remonstrance  with  the 
patriarch  for  not  adhering  to  truth  in  representing  his  wife  as  his 
sister.  And  kings  are  recorded  to  have  been  punished  for  their 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  293 

covetousness.  It  might  be  reasonably  concluded  from  the  pre 
ceding  instances  of  respect  for  nine  of  the  commandments  that 
the  Sabbatic  law  was  in  force  ;  but  we  are  not  left  to  this  inferen 
tial  mode  of  ascertaining  the  fact,  there  being  none  of  the  pre 
cepts  of  the  Decalogue  presented  in  so  full  detail  as  the  fourth  is 
presented  in  the  narrative  of  the  original  appointment  of  the 
day  of  sacred  rest. 

But  not  only  were  the  patriarchs  under  Divine  law, — the 
same  law  which  after  their  time  was  formally  given  to  their  de 
scendants.  The  heathen  who  never  had  any  communication  with 
the  children  of  Abraham,  and  who  were  not  within  hearing  of  the 
thunders  of  Sinai,  and  "the  great  voice"  of  the  Lawgiver,  were 
under  law  to  God.  The  apostle  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  classes  them  with  the  Jews,  as  composing  that  "world" 
which  is  throughout  "  guilty  before  God,"  and  charges  them  with 
every  variety  of  sin.  But  where  no  law  is,  there  is  no  transgres 
sion.  Yet  they  knew  that  "they  who  commit  such  things"  as 
"  unrighteousness,  fornication,  wickedness,  covetousness,  malicious 
ness,  hatred  of  God,  pride,  disobedience  to  parents,"  and  other 
sins,  "are  worthy  of  death."  "For  when  the  Gentiles,  which 
have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law, 
these,  having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves  :  which  show 
the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience  also 
bearing  witness,  and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or 
else  excusing  one  another."  They  are  indeed  said  to  be  "  without 
law."  They  were  destitute  of  the  knowledge  of  the  will  of  God 
as  contained  in  the  sacred  oracles,  or,  according  to  the  language 
of  these  oracles,  "  He  showeth  his  word  unto  Jacob,  his  statutes 
and  his  judgments  unto  Israel.  He  hath  not  dealt  so  with  any 
nation."  "  What  advantage  hath  the  Jew  1  or  what  profit  is 
there  of  circumcision  ?  Much  every  way  :  chiefly,  because  that 
unto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God."  In  the  Law  and 
Gospel  known  to  the  Jews,  the  one  more  clearly  than  to  other 
nations,  the  other  exclusively,  both  classes  were  alike  concerned, 
else  where  would  have  been  the  alleged  advantage  of  the  Jew  ] 
The  Gentiles  and. the  Jews  are  supposed  by  the  apostle  to  be 
under  the  same  law,  known,  indeed,  in  different  degrees,  but  so 
known  by  both  as  that  the  former  who  have  not  the  law  are  said 


294  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

when  obedient  to  do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law, 
and  to  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts,  while 
the  Jews  are  said  to  "do  the  same"  as  the  Gentiles  when  both 
transgress  it.  And  it  is  when  the  apostle  has  proved  that  Jews 
and  Gentiles  are  all  under  sin,  that  he  thus  declares  the  result  of 
their  trial  by  the  everlasting  rule  of  righteousness  :  "  Now  we 
know  that  what  things  soever  the  law  saith,  it  saith  to  them  who 
are  under  the  law  :  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the 
world  may  become  guilty  before  God." 

It  is  not  questioned  that  the  Jews  were  under  the  law  of  the 
Decalogue.  It  only  remains,  then,  to  inquire  whether  we  have 
evidence  that  its  obligation  descends  to  Christians. 

In  more  than  one  respect  is  it  true  that  they  are  delivered 
from  the  law  given  to  Israel  With  the  political  part  of  that  law 
as  a  directory,  except  as  regards  its  principles  and  maxims  of  eternal 
morality,  they  have  no  concern.  They  are  freed  or  rather  ex 
empted  from  any  obligation  to  observe  the  Levitical  ceremonies. 
And  there  is  a  sense  in  which  they  are  delivered  from  the  De 
calogue  itself,  but  delivered  in  a  manner  that  binds  them  the 
more  strongly  to  its  requirements.  The  law  of  the  ten  command 
ments,  proclaimed  from  Sinai,  was,  as  it  had  been  since  the  fall 
of  man,  a  law  of  condemnation  and  curse  as  well  as  a  law  of 
liberty.  It  is  so  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel.  Thus 
the  apostle  Paul  says,  "  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not 
in  all  things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them  ;"  and  thus 
the  apostle  James,  "Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and 
yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all."  No  one  was  more 
stern  in  preaching  the  terrors  of  the  law  than  the  Saviour  him 
self.  And  what  was  the  purpose  of  all  this  ?  It  was  that  sinful 
men  might  be  delivered  from  the  condemnation  and  curse  of  the 
law,  and  brought  to  obey  its  precepts,  the  very  precepts  for  trans 
gressing  which  they  were  condemned,  but  which  are  still  their 
rule,  as  unbending  as  ever,  yet  rendered  practicable  and  attrac 
tive  by  the  Saviour's  atonement,  love,  and  grace.  "  We  are 
delivered  from  the  law,  that  being  dead  wherein  we  were  held, 
that  we  should  serve  in  newness  of  spirit,  and  not  in  the  old- 
ness  of  the  letter.  What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Is  the  law- 
Bin  1  God  forbid.  The  law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  295 

holy,  just,  and  good.  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  in 
ward  man." 

That  Christians  are  under  the  law  of  the  ten  commandments  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament.  «  Think  not,"  said  Christ, 
"  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets  :  I  am  not 
come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  Till 
heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass 
from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled.  Whosoever,  therefore,  shall 
break  one  of  these  least  commandments,  and  shall  teach  men  so, 
he  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  :  but  who 
soever  shall  do  and  teach  them,  the  same  shall  be  called  great  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."1  That  our  Lord  here,  under  the  ex 
pression  "the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  refers  to  the  Christian  dis 
pensation,  is  certain.  He  and  John  the  Baptist  announced  that 
dispensation  under  the  same  phrase,  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
at  hand."  And  that  he  speaks  of  the  law  of  the  Decalogue  is 
manifest  from  the  immediately  subsequent  words  of  his  sermon, 
in  which  he  proceeds  to  expound  and  enforce  some  of  its  precepts, 
vindicating  them  from  the  perversions  and  limitations  by  which 
the  Jews  had  corrupted  them.  He  does  not  specify  every  one  of 
the  commandments ;  but  a  general  proposition  respecting  a  law, 
illustrated  by  a  few  examples,  must  be  understood  as  involving  a 
principle  applicable  to  all  the  particulars  of  that  law.  The  Sab 
bath  is  not  mentioned,  neither  is  the  Fifth  Commandment.  Our 
Lord,  however,  takes  other  opportunities  of  freeing  both  from 
Jewish  additions  and  abuses — the  Fifth,  in  the  case  of  the  person 
who,  that  he  might  be  exempted  from  the  duty  of  applying  his 
property  in  aid  of  his  parents,  called  it  "  corban,"  or  something 
devoted  to  God  ;  and  the  Fourth  in  numerous  instances.  It  is  a 
striking  confirmation  of  our  views  that  our  Lord  never  does  honour 
to  any  ceremonial  or  judicial  enactment  by  redeeming  it  from  the 
false  glosses  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees. 

On  various  other  occasions  did  our  Lord  so  speak  and  act  as 
beyond  all  doubt  to  teach  us  the  continued  obligation  of  the 
Decalogue.  JThus,  whenjhejroung_  man  asked  what  gojKJjbhing 
he  ^oul(lj[o^tha^Ji£^jght  have_eternal  life.  Jesus^re^lied^J*  If 
Uiou  wilt  entgr_Jnto  Iife7  keep  the  commandments ;"  and  theu^T 

l  Matt.  v.  17-19. 


296         DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

in  answer  to  another  question  inquiring  what  these  were,  said, 
"Thou  shalt  do  no  murder,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery, 
Thou  shalt  not  steal,  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness,  Honour 
thy  father  and  thy  mother  :  and,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself."1  Here  five  of  the  ten  commandments  are  speci 
fied,  and  affirmed  to  be  binding.  Our  Lord's  purpose  was  to  show 
the  individual  his  true  character,  and  it  was  sufficient  for  this 
end  to  set  before  him  a  Eart_of^  the__law.  But  by  this  selection 
he  .has  attested  the  authority  of  the  whole  Decalogue. ) 

(Our  Lord  teaches  the  same  doctrine  to  the  lawyer  who  asked 
which  was  the  great  commandment  in  the  law,  when  he  said, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments  hang  all 
the  law  and  the  prophets."2  As  in  his  language  to  the  young 
man,  he  had  summed  up  the  precepts  of  the  second  table  in  love 
to  our  neighbour,  so  here  he  comprehends  the  whole  Decalogue 
in  love  to  God  and  man,  declaring  as  plainly  as  language  could 
express  it  that  everr  one  of  the  ten  commanthrrentij  continues  in 
_all  its  ancient  authority.  ) 

The  language  of~the  apostles,  in  like  manner,  recognises  the 
permanence  of  the  Decalogue.  In  applying  the  Fifth  Command 
ment  to  the  children  of  Christian  parents,  and  enforcing  it  by  its 
ancient  promise  of  long  life,3  the  apostle  Paul  has  no  idea  that  the 
language  in  the  land  made  the  precept  a  merely  Jewish  one,  as 
originally  given,  but  clearly  regards  it  as  one  which  embraced  the 
Gentiles  as  well  as  the  Jews — the  time  to  come  as  well  as  the 
time  then  present.  How  indubitably  does  the  same  apostle  re 
cognise  the  obligation  of  the  ten  commandments  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  when  he  says,  "  Do  we  make  void  the  law  through 
faith  1  God  forbid  ;  yea,  we  establish  the  law" — when  he  de 
clares  "the  law"  to  be  "holy,  and  the  commandment  to  be  holy, 
just,  and  good ;"  and  when  he  expressly  enjoins  specific  precepts 
of  the  law.4  The  apostle  James,  also,  thus  writes  respecting  the 
law  of  the  ten  commandments  :  "  Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole 

i  Matt.  six.  16-19.  '  Matt.  xxii.  37-40. 

s  Eph.  vi.  1-3.  <  Rom.  iii.  31,  vii.  12,  jdit  9. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  297 

law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all.  For  he  that 
said,  Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also,  Do  not  kill.  Now,  if 
thou  commit  no  adultery,  yet,  if  thou  kill,  thou  art  become  a 
transgressor  of  the  law."1  The  principle  here  implied  would 
warrant  equally  the  statement,  "  He  that  said,  Honour  thy  parents, 
said  also,  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy.  Now,  if 
thou  do  no  dishonour  to  thy  parents,  yet,  if  thou  profane  the 
Sabbath,  thou  art  become  a  transgressor  of  the  law." 

iL  10, 11. 


DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  SABBATH,  UNDER  A  CHANGE  OF  DAY,  A  CHRISTIAN 
ORDINANCE  AND  LAW. 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from  one  Sabbath  to  another  shall  all  flesh  come  to 
worship  before  me,  saith  the  Lord." 

FOURTH  PROPOSITION. A  VARIETY  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES  CON 
CURRED  TO  JUSTIFY  THE  CONFIDENT  EXPECTATION,  THAT 
THE  SABBATIC  INSTITUTION  WAS  TO  BE  PERPETUATED  UNDER 
CHRISTIANITY. 

WHEN  this  last  and  best  dispensation  of  religion  was  introduced 
the  world  stood  as  much  as  ever  in  need  of  a  Sabbath.  The 
physical  nature  and  necessities  of  mankind  remained  the  same  as 
they  had  been.  A  time  had  been  predicted  when  "  the  thousand 
natural  shocks  that  flesh  is  heir  to "  should  be  removed  or  abated, 
but  it  has  not  yet  fully  come,  and  when  it  shall  come,  there  is 
no  reason  for  conceiving  that  it  will  bring  with  it  the  entire  cessa 
tion  of  fatiguing  exertion.  "  They  shall  labour,"  but  "  not  in 
vain  ;"  they  shall  build  houses  and  inhabit  them ;  plant  vine 
yards  and  eat  their  fruit.  The  absence  of  all  labour  would  be  a 
curse  and  not  a  blessing.  Far  advanced  as  we  are  in  the  nine 
teenth  century  of  Christianity,  we  see  man  and  beast  still  wearied 
with  toil,  and  still  requiring  the  rest  of  night  and  of  every  seventh 
day. 

When  men  became  Christians,  they  continued  to  have  mental 
and  religious  wants.  All  of  them  needed  for  the  improvement  of 
their  intellectual  faculties  a  weekly  change  of  employment,  and 
for  their  moral  and  spiritual  welfare  a  frequently  returning  season 
of  rest  from  their  ordinary  business,  and  of  instruction,  reflection, 
and  devotion.  Many  of  them  had  scarcely  any  other  means  of 


TESTIMONY  OF  EEVELATION.  299 

mental  improvement,  or  any  other  opportunity  of  deliberately 
attending  to  their  own  eternal  interests,  and  those  of  their  children, 
than  a  Sabbath  afforded.  And  there  is  still  no  possibility  that 
human  beings  can  live  piously,  morally,  and  happily,  without  a 
day  of  sacred  rest.  To  imagine  that  Christianity  would,  in 
these  unchanged  circumstances  of  man,  be  without  its  holy  day, 
•would  be  to  suppose  that  it  would  be  less  wise,  pure,  and  bene 
volent,  than  preceding  economies,  or  rather,  that  it  would  be  so 
different  a  system  as  to  be  no  religion  at  all. 

There  remained  also  the  irrevocable  obligation  of  worship  in  all 
its  parts — personal,  domestic,  and  public,  and  how  any  human 
being  in  the  present  condition  of  society  could  observe  that  wor 
ship  in  a  manner  becoming  the  claims  of  its  great  object,  and  with 
any  satisfaction  or  advantage  to  himself,  or  rather  how  he  could 
observe  it  at  all,  it  is  for  them  who  would  improve  on  the  plans 
of  Divine  wisdom  and  benevolence  to  show. 

Besides  the  existence  of  the  same  necessity  for  the  Sabbath, 
such  an  institution  was  capable  of  yielding  the  same  advantages 
as  ever,  and  it  was  to  be  presumed  from  the  promises  of  a  happier 
era  that  Divine  blessings,  instead  of  being  restricted,  would  be 
continued  and  even  increased. 

The  statute  of  the  primaeval  rest,  too,  was  unrepealed.  All 
along  from  the  time  of  its  institution  to  the  departure  of  Israel 
from  Egypt — even  though  it  were  true  that  in  a  brief  history  it 
is  not  alluded  to — it  remained  a  standing  rule  for  the  world. 
When  next  expressly  introduced,  it  is  in  the  form  not  of  a  revoca 
tion,  but  of  a  revival.  Immediately  thereafter,  it  is  solemnly 
recognised  in  a  law  promulgated  for  mankind.  Had  the  proceed 
ings  in  Sin,  or  at  Sinai,  issued  in  an  appointment  that  contra 
vened  or  superseded  the  original  enactment,  there  would  be  *a  plea 
for  the  opinion  that  the  Sabbath  of  Paradise  had  ceased.  But 
what  plea  of  this  nature  can  be  preferred  where  that  institution  is 
made  the  basis  of  legislation,  and  its  ancient  reason,  character, 
and  sanction,  only  in  expanded  form  and  more  solemn  manner, 
renewed  1 

The  law  given  from  Sinai,  in  like  manner  as  that  given  in  Eden, 
remained  in  full  force.  Christ  was  careful  to  clear  it  from  Jewish 
corruptions,  and  if  there  was  any  precept  more  particularly  vindi- 


300  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

cated  by  him  and  honoured  than  another,  it  was  that  requiring 
the  Sabbath-day  to  be  kept  holy.  It  is  not  the  practice  of  a  wise 
man  to  repair  a  house  which  he  is  about  to  pull  down. 

Add  to  such  reasons  for  expecting  a  Christian  holy  day  the 
fact,  that  the  hope  was  cherished  by  Old  Testament  predictions 
and  promises,  which  declared  that  the  Sabbath  would  exist,  be 
honoured  and  blessed  under  the  reign  of  Messiah.  In  more  than 
one  part  of  this  volume  are  the  prophetic  and  gracious  intimations 
on  these  points  quoted  and  considered.  Let  us  only,  after  re 
ferring  our  readers  to  the  fifty-sixth  and  fifty-eighth  chapters  of 
Isaiah,  where  there  are  glowing  representations  of  the  coming  dis 
pensation  with  its  Sabbatic  blessings  for  men  of  all  classes,  and  its 
house  of  prayer  for  all  people,  advert  for  a  moment  to  the  last 
sentence  but  one  in  the  writings  of  that  prophet.  It  is  this  : 
"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from  one  new  moon  to  another, 
and  from  one  Sabbath  to  another,  shall  all  flesh  come  to  worship 
before  me,  saith  the  Lord."1 

It  is  not  the  meaning  of  these  words,  that  a  time  is  coming 
when  every  day  will  resemble  the  day  of  the  new  moon  and  the 
Sabbath-day,  that  is,  when  its  holier  service  of  God  will  be  like 
a  worship  all  the  month  and  week  over.  It  is  true  that  the 
Word  of  God  holds  out  the  prospect  of  a  time  when  the  labours  of 
our  race  in  procuring  what  is  necessary  for  food  and  defence  will 
be  diminished,  and  when  their  opportunities  for  attending  to  the 
soul  will  be  multiplied.  But  it  is  not  said  that  they  shall  come 
from  day  to  day,  but  from  month  to  month,  and  from  week  to 
week.  In  the  language  of  Scripture  as  well  as  in  common  speech; 
what  is  done  from  year  to  year,  as  in  the  case  of  the  command  of 
Israel  to  keep  the  passover  from  year  to  year,  is  done  annually — 
what  is  done  from  month  to  month,  or  from  week  to  week,  is 
done  monthly  or  weekly.  Nor  is  it  the  meaning  of  these  words, 
that  the  stated  Jewish  days — new  moons  and  Sabbaths — should 
be  continued  or  revived  in  future  times.  The  Scripture  must  be 
expounded  in  consistency  with  itself.  If  there  are  to  be  the 
Jewish  times,  there  must  also  be  priests  and  Levites,  and  an 
actual  repairing  of  "  all  flesh"  to  the  literal  Jerusalem.  If  on  the 
other  hand,  the  priests  and  Levites  of  a  preceding  verse  denote 

*  Isaiah  Ixvi.  28. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  501 

the  office-bearers  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  if  Jerusalem  signify 
the  church  itself,  then  the  new  moons  and  Sabbaths  must  only 
refer  to  the  seasons  of  public  worship  under  Christianity  whatever 
these  seasons  may  be.  In  no  other  way  could  the  prophet  have 
made  himself  understood  than  by  mentioning  religious  observances 
as  they  then  prevailed.  All  that  we  are  warranted,  therefore,  to 
draw  from  the  verse  before  us  is,  that  as  the  people  of  Judea  at 
set  times  repaired  to  Jerusalem  to  worship,  and  as  they  observed 
their  new  moons  and  Sabbaths,  so  in  a  future  age  all  flesh,  or 
men  of  every  land,  shall  connect  themselves  with  the  church  of 
God,  and  engage  from  month  to  month,  and  from  week  to  week, 
in  "  its  stated  observances  and  solemn  forms."1 


FIFTH    PROPOSITION. WHILE    A    VARIETY   OF    CIRCUMSTANCES 

HELD  OUT  THE  PROSPECT  OF  A  PERENNIAL  HOLY  DAY, 
THERE  WERE  OTHERS  THAT  TENDED  TO  PREPARE  THE  MINDS 
OF  MEN  FOR  SOME  CHANGE  IN  THE  INSTITUTION. 

lit  had  already  undergone  changes  in  its  relations  and  bearings. 
From  being  a  simple  rule  of  duty  it  became  a  part  of  the  condition 
on  which  depended  man's  happiness.  It  passed  into  the  provi 
sions  of  the  covenant  of  grace.  It  was  received  into  the  Jewish 
economy,  and  in  that  connexion  was  a  memorial  of  the  deliverance 
of  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egyptian  bondage,  as  well  as  of  the 
world's  creation — a  political  regulation  and  a  ceremonial  type,  as 
well  as  a  moral  law.  These  were  precedents  which  indicated  that 
there  might  be  future  changes  in  the  application,  which  should  not 
affect  the  substance,  of  the  institution.  J 

A  dispensation  so  important,  and  in  some  respects  so  new  as 
that  of  Christianity,  might  be  presumed  to  require,  in  adaptation 
to  its  own  character  and  purposes,  some  alterations  in  the  Sabbath. 
It  might  be  expected,  for  example,  that  the  work  of  redemption 
would  have  a  prominent  niche  and  statue  in  this  monumental 
institute.  The  Scriptures  had  presented  this  work  as  one  that 
should  cast  all  preceding  works  into  shade.  They  had  told  us  of 
a  new  creation  more  glorious  than  the  old,  and  therefore  more 

'  Alexander's  Proph?cir-s  ofltaiak. 

u 


302         DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

entitled  to  remembrance  ;  of  a  redemption  more  precious  far  than 
the  rescue  from  Egyptian  thraldom,  and  therefore  much  more 
worthy  to  be  immortalized.  If  the  material  creation  merited  a 
memorial,  still  more  the  moral  •  if  the~temporal  deliverance  of  a 
single  nation  deserved  to  have  an  institution  enacted  in  i,ts  honour, 
incalculably  more  the  spiritual  and  eternal  salvation  of  a  multitude 
that  no  man  can  number. 

Nor  were  there  wanting  intimations  of  what  the  necessary 
change  would  be.  The  seventh  was  an  important  day  under  the 
Mosaic  economy,  but  various  instances  occur  in  which  the  eighth 
was  honoured.  Circumcision,  a  seal  of  the  righteousness  of  the 
faith  which  Abraham  had  yet  being  uncircumcised,  was  to  be 
administered  on  the  eighth  day.  On  the  eighth  day  were  the  first 
born  of  cattle  to  be  offered  to  the  Lord,  and  the  sheaf  of  the 
first-fruits  to  be  presented  and  accepted.  On  that  day  the  con 
secration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  the  sanctification  of  the 
Temple,  were  completed.  These  and  similar  transactions  were 
shadows  of  things  to  come,  but  the  body  is  of  Christ.  And  where 
shall  we  find  an  eighth  day  signalized  by  any  doings  or  blessings 
of  Christ  correspondent  with  those  types  except  the  day  on  which 
He  rose  from  the  dead  ?  There  is  one  typical  representation  in 
particular  that  calls  for  remark.  It  occurs  in  Ezekiel's  vision  of 
the  Temple.  That  this  vision  was  not  realized  in  the  building  of 
the  second  temple  appears  from,  besides  other  facts,  the  differences 
in  its  worship  from  that  prescribed  by  the  law  of  Moses ;  and 
that  there  will  be  no  literal  fulfilment  of  it  at  a  future  day,  is 
obvious  from  several  considerations,  one  of  which  is  sufficient,  and 
is,  that  sacrifice  is  for  ever  abolished  by  Christ,  so  that  to  attempt 
its  revival  would  be  to  deny  His  sacrifice.  The  only  supposable 
accomplishment  of  the  vision  is  in  the  condition  of  the  Christian 
Church  :  And  what  is  there  that  fulfils  the  following  prediction, 
if  not  the  first  day  of  the  week  and  its  Christian  worship  1  "  And 
when  these  days  are  expired,  it  shall  be,  that  upon  the  eighth  day, 
and  so  forward,  the  priest  shall  make  your  burnt-offerings  upon 
the  altar,  and  your  peace-offerings  ;  and  I  will  accept  you,  saith 
the  Lord."1 

*  Kaek.  xliii.  27. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  303 

SIXTH     PROPOSITION. THE     FACTS     RECORDED     IN     THE     NEW 

TESTAMENT,  AS  REGARDS  BOTH  THE  PERPETUITY  AND 
BLESSINGS  OF  THE  SABBATH,  AND  THE  CHANGE  OF  ITS 
DAY,  HAVE  FULFILLED  THE  PREDICTIONS  AND  REALIZED 
THE  TYPES,  OF  THE  OLD. 

The  obligation  of  observing  the  seventh  day  as  the  Sabbath  has 
ceased.  This  is  conclusively  established  by  a  variety  of  evidence. 

It  appears  from  several  passages  in  the  New  Testament  that  on 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  attempts  were  made  by  certain 
converts  from  among  the  Jews  to  impose  upon  Gentile  believers 
the  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses,  particularly  circumcision, .the 
distinction  of  meat's,~aiiH~sacred  seasonsr~'Bu'ch"attempts  were 
repeatedly  resisted  by  the  apostles.  We  have  the  judgment  of 
the  apostle  Paul  on  the  subject,  as  regarded  the  days  of  the  old^ 
ritual,  in  these  words  to  the  Colossians  :  "  Let  no  imuTjudge  you 
ISTmeat  or  drink,  or  in  respect  of  an  holy  day,  or  of  the  new  moon, 
or  of  the  sabbath-days  _;  whjch  are  a  shadow  of  things  to  come ; 
but  the  body  is  of  Christ."  \  In  the  preceding  verses  the  apostle 
had  referred  to  the  privilege  enjoyed  by  the  Christians  at  Colosse, 
of  freedom  from  the  obligation  to  observe  Jewish  ceremonies. 
They  had  been  circumcised,  indeed,  but  it  was  with  "  the  circum 
cision  made  without  hands."  "  The  handwriting  of  ordinances, 
which  was  contrary"  both  to  them  and  to  the  apostle,  had  been 
"  taken  out  of  the  way  by  Christ,  who  nailed  it  to  his  cross." 
And  then,  in  the  words  before  us,  they  are  told  that  no  man 
ought  to  judge  or  condemn  them  in  reference  to  meat  o>*  drink,  a 
holy  day  or  festival,  the  new  moon  or  Sabbath-days.  (  The  word 
in  the  original  for  Sabbath-days  is  plural,  and  always  in  that  form 
has  the  sense  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  in  the  New  Testament.  In 
its  singular  form  it  is  employed  with  the  same  meaning,  only  two 
exceptions  being  pleaded  for  in  which  it  is  supposed  by  some  to 
denote  the  Christian  Sabbath,2  'and  which  will  again  come  under 
our  notice.  Whether,  then,  we  consider  the  relation  of  the  words 
to  the  apostle's  subject  and  purpose,  the  connexion  of  confessedly 
Jewish  ceremonies -with  the  Sabbath-days  in  the  verse,  or  the 
meaning  of  this  term  itself,  we  must  believe  tliat  the  Colossian 

l  CoLti.  1«,  17.  2  Matt  xxiv.  20;  Acts  xui  42. 


304  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

converts,  and,  by  parity  of  reason,  all  Christians,  were  by  tMs 
sentence"  of  the  apostle  exempted  froni  the  o 


^ 

the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  ks  really  as  they  were  from  that  of  paying 
regard  to  the  distinctions  -in  food,  the  festivals,  and  new  moons  of  the 
preceding  economy.  The  same,  or  at  least  a  corresponding  truth, 
is  taught  in  the  words  addressed  to  the  Galatians  (iv.  9-11):  "  But 
now,  after  that  ye  have  known  God,  or  rather  are  known  of  God, 
how  turn  ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements,  whereunto 
ye  desire  again  to  be  in  bondage  1  Ye  observe  days,  and  months, 
and  times,  and  years.  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed 
upon  you  labour  in  vain."  But  as  it  is  not  said  that  Christians 
were  raised  above  the  necessity,  or  deprived  of  the  advantage  and 
enjoyment  of  meat  and  drink,  so  neither  is  it  intimated  that  they 
were  to  have  no  set  day  of  sacred  rest  and  service.  The  text 
must  be  adhered  to,  and  it  relates  to  ritual  matters  alone  —  to 
Sabbaths,  as,  like  new  moons  and  holidays,  forming  a  part  of  the 
Jewish  ceremonial.  Beyond  the  application  of  the  term  to  what 
was  common  in  Sabbath-days  with  distinctions  in  meat  and  drink, 
and  with  the  festivals  and  new  moons  of  the  Jews,  we  have  no 
warrant  to  go  in  interpreting  the  apostolic  decree.  Let  us  recol 
lect,  besides,  that  the  apostle  is  writing  at  the  distance  of  thirty 
years  from  the  date  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  and  at  a  time  when 
the  assembling  of  Christians  for  public  worship  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week  had  become  an  established  practice.  The  Colossians 
must,  therefore,  have  understood  him,  not  as  setting  aside  all 
sabbatical  observance  which,  without  dropping  a  hint  of  discourage 
ment,  he  was  aware  prevailed  under  a  change  of  day,  but  simply 
as  discharging  from  obligation  on  conscience  a  day  which  every 
one  knew  to  be  the  last  of  the  week.  While,  moreover,  his  words 
discard  the  days  of  Judaism,  they  touch  not  the  authority  of  the 
ancient  statute  of  Paradise,  and  in  undermining  ceremonial  rites, 
leave  unshaken  the  moral  foundation  on  which  rests  the  prescrip 
tion,  "  Kemember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy." 

However  they  may  be  conceived  to  differ,  the.  earlier  deci 
sion  on  the  subject  of  the  observance  of  particular  days  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  is  in  unison  with  that  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Colossians,  and  furnishes  additional  evidence  that  the  obli 
gation  of  observing  the  seventh  day  as  a  sacred  day  had  been  an- 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  305 

nulled.  The  apostle  addressing  the  church  at  Rome,  which  was 
composed  partly  of  converted  heathen,  and  partly  of  converted 
Jews,  and  in  which  a  diversity  of  view  existed  in  reference  to  the 
keeping  of  certain  days,  says,  "  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above 
another ;  another  esteemeth  every  day  alike.  Let  every  man  be 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  He  that  regardeth  the  day  re- 
gardeth  it  unto  the  Lord ;  and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to 
the  Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it."  l  As  the  design  of  the  whole 
Epistle  is  to  show  that  the  way  of  salvation  through  Christ  is  opened 
alike  to  Jews  and  Gentiles,  Jewish  rites  and  ceremonies  being 
superseded,  and  as  abstinence  from  certain  meats  is  adduced  along 
with  days,  as  the  subject  of  difference  on  which  the  apostle  de 
cides,  it  is  obvious  that  the  days  in  question  are  the  Mosaic  holy 
days.  The  class  who  had  been  Jews  had  a  special  regard  for  these 
days ;  the  class  who  had  been  heathen  attached  no  importance  to 
them.  In  this  case  they  were  not  to  condemn  each  other,  but  to 
act  on  their  respective  conscientious  convictions.  Was  this  the 
language  appropriate  to  the  fact  of  the  continued  obligation  of  the 
seventh  day  ?  The  sacred  observance  of  that  day  had  at  one 
time  been  the  solemn  duty  of  the  Jews,  frequently  pressed  on  their 
attention,  and  enforced  by  the  promise  of  valuable  blessings  to 
those  who  discharged  it,  as  well  as  by  denunciations  of  calamity 
against  the  disobedient.  Now,  however,  to  adhere  to  what  was 
formerly  so  indispensable,  places  the  person  in  the  very  different 
position  of  the  weak  though  well-meaning  object  of  forbearance. 

The  fate  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath  is  in  accordance  with 
the  apostolical  decisions.  Silence  here  is  very  different  in  its  im 
port  from  the  silence  that  followed  the  birth  of  the  institution. 
There  is  this  difference,  with  others,  that  in  the  latter  case  the 
silence  was  broken,  while  in  the  former  it  remains  undisturbed. 
Amidst  the  circumstantial  details  of  the  early  Christian  Church, 
we  never  after  his  resurrection  find  the  followers  of  Jesus  assem 
bling  for  sacred  services  on  the  seventh  day.  Nor  was  it  the 
manner  of  the  Saviour  during  his  stay  for  forty  days  on  earth  to 
go  as  formerly  into  the  synagogue  on  that  day.  He  honours  the 
meetings  of  his  disciples,  but  it  is  no  longer  on  the  seventh  day. 
Frequently  do  the  apostles  and  Christians  "  come  together,"  but 

i  Rom.  xiv.  5,  6. 


306  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

in  several  instances  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  expressly  men 
tioned  as  the  set  time,  while  the  old  day  of  the  Sabbath  is  never 
said  to  be  selected  for  such  assemblies.  It  affects  not  the  truth 
of  our  statement,  that  the  apostle  Paul  repeatedly  met  with  the 
Jews  on  that  day,1  and  "  reasoned  with  them  out  of  the  Scriptures, 
as  his  manner  was."  This  practice  did  not  in  his  case  involve 
agreement  with  them  in  their  adherence  to  the  day,  or  in  any  of 
their  peculiarities,  else  he  must  be  supposed  to  have  also  fraternized 
with  pagans  by  preaching  in  the  Areopagus,  thereby  defeating  his 
avowed  purpose  not  to  sanction  but  to  revolutionize  the  views  and 
customs  both  of  Jews  and  heathens  on  all  such  occasions.  His 
philanthropy  impelled  him  to  go  about,  like  his  Master,  doing 
good — doing  good  as  he  had  opportunity  to  all.  It  was  in  parti 
cular  his  heart's  desire  and  prayer  for  his  kinsmen  according  to 
the  flesh,  that  they  might  be  saved  ;  and  in  acting  on  this  feeling 
he  was  guided  by  the  Master's  arrangement,  to  which  he  thus 
refers  when  addressing  the  Jews  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  :  "It  was 
necessary  that  the  word  of  God  should  first  have  been  spoken  to 
you."  To  fulfil  these  benevolent  wishes  to  the  utmost  it  was  obvi 
ously  wise  and  necessary  that  he  should  embrace  the  favourable 
opportunities  of  access  to  his  brethren  and  fellow-men  afforded  by 
the  scenes  and  seasons  of  their  wonted  and  largest  concourse. 
Where  it  did  not  compromise  truth  or  duty,  he  was  ready  to  go 
farther  than  this — even  to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  he 
might  save  some.  He  could  keep  the  passover,  circumcise  Timothy, 
purify  himself  according  to  a  Jewish  rite,  call  himself  a  Pharisee, 
own  Ananias  as  high-priest — such  conformity  being  allowed  to  a 
Jew  in  tenderness  to  his  brethren,  that  they  might  not  be  driven 
from  Christianity,  but  be  gradually  won  over  from  an  abrogated 
ritual.  And  yet  in  perfect  consistency  with  these  concessions,  he 
taught  the  doctrines  that  the  Mosaic  ceremonies  were  virtually  dis 
placed,  that  it  was  a  denial  of  the  Messiah  to  attempt  their  revival 
as  necessary  to  salvation,  and  that  no  man  was  to  judge  those 
Gentiles  who  refused  to  submit  to  them,  while  practically  he  would 
have  withstood  the  apostles  to  the  face,  if  they  had  attempted  to 
compel  a  Titus,  or  even  a  recusant  Jew,  to  be  circumcised.  The 
sutfiequent  history  of  the  seventh- day  Sabbath,  while  it  illustrates 

i  Acts  ix.  20  ;  xiii.  14-16;  xvi  IS  ;  xvli.  1-3  ;  xviii.  4, 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  307 

the  wisdom  of  this  policy,  confirms  our  doctrine  of  its  authoritative 
abolition.  Regard  for  it  died  out,  and  another  day  rose  gradually 
and  peacefully  to  ascendency.  For  a  time  the  former  continued 
as  a  subordinate  season  of  worship,  but  for  some  fifteen  or  sixteen 
centuries  it  has  been,  except  by  the  Jews  and  a  very  small  sect  of 
Christians,  altogether  disregarded.  Is  it  within  the  limits  of  moral 
possibility  that  a  day  which  has  for  so  long  a  period  failed  to 
secure  the  respect  and  observance  of  the  Christian  Church  is  en 
titled  to  the  claim  of  Divine  authority  ] 

The  first  day  of  the  week  was  divinely  appointed  to  be  the 
Christian  Sabbath. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  no  new  institution  required  to  be 
enacted.  The  law  prescribing  a  day  of  rest  after  six  days  of 
labour  had  been  from  the  beginning.  It  was  given  in  Paradise, 
impressively  recognised  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  and  solemnly 
announced  from  Mount  Sinai.  Promises  of  blessing  to  its  friends, 
and  proclamations  of  calamity  to  its  enemies,  were  from  time  to 
time  sounded  in  the  ears  of  the  Jews  by  the  prophets.  The 
primaeval  appointment  and  the  fourth  commandment  remaining 
unrepealed  and  irrevocable,  with  their  unchanged  and  unalterable 
reasons,  the  hopes  of  the  ancient  church  were  at  the  same  time 
pointed  to  a  permanent  day  of  rest  and  worship  with  adaptations 
to  the  new  and  more  glorious  creation.  Our  Lord  had  confirmed 
all  these  views  of  the  institution,  and  these  hopes  of  men.  He 
declared  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  yet  that  man 
was  not  made  for  the  Sabbath.  He  claimed  to  be  the  Lord  of 
the  Sabbath.  He  cleared  it^.  law  and  the  other  moral  precepts 
from  misrepresentation.  And  while  he  thus  taught  the  import 
ance  and  value  of  a  weekly  holy  day,  he  rebuked  the  superstitious 
regard  for  a  particular  day  (the  design  of  which  had  been  accom 
plished),  and  prepared  the  minds  of  men  for  a  change.  If  Israel 
in  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  as  Henry  expresses  it,  so  "  readily  took 
the  hint"  of  a  Sabbath  there  given,  much-  more  might  it  be  sup 
posed  that  there  was  abundant  light  reflected  from  the  glorious 
resurrection  of  the  Saviour  to  indicate  to  his  disciples  the  day 
which  should  henceforth  be  devoted  to  sacred  rest  and  service. 
And  how  inexcusable  are  we  if  his  marked  selection  of  a  par 
ticular  season  for  his  visits  to  them,  and  for  sending  them  the 


308  DIVINE  AUTHOEITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

Holy  Ghost — their  use  of  the  same  season  in  their  public  cele 
bration  of  his  praise  and  ordinances,  and  the  name  given  to  it  by 
which  he  asserted  and  they  admitted  his  claim  to  it  as  his  own, — 
if  these  facts  do  not  carry  ample  evidence  to  our  minds  that  the 
time  referred  to,  the  first  day  of  the  week,  is  by  his  authority 
constituted  the  Sabbath  of  Christianity. 

The  resurrection  of  our  Lord  from  the  dead  was  both  the  indi 
cation  and  the  cause  of  the  transference  of  the  Sabbatic  day 
from  the  end  to  the  beginning  of  the  week.  All  the  evangelists 
record  the  fact  that  the  former  event  took  place  on  the  first  day 
of  the  week  ;  but  one  of  them  more  concisely  and  directly  : 
"  Now  when  Jesus  was  risen  early  the  first  day  of  the  week,  he 
appeared  first  to  Mary  Magdalene."  It  was  not  by  accident 
that  the  Eedeemer  rose  from  the  dead  on  that  day.  There  are 
reasons  for  the  times  of  much  less  important  events.  Circum 
stances  might  have  been  so  arranged  as  that  Jesus  should  have 
risen  on  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  ;  but  it  was  not  so  ordered. 
That  on  this  day  he  should  lie  in  the  dust  of  death  was  a  plain 
token  that  it  was  no  longer  to  be  "  a  delight " — a  day  of  joyful 
commemoration.  The  day  of  His  resurrection  was  the  first  day 
of  the  Saviour's  rest,  and  the  analogy,  to  say  nothing  more,  to 
the  Divine  procedure  in  creation  required  that  the  day  on  which 
He  rested  from  a  transcendently  more  glorious  work  should  be 
the  season  of  rest  and  celebration  in  His  kingdom.  "  There 
remaineth  therefore  a  rest,"  the  keeping  of  a  Sabbath,  "  to  the 
people  of  God.  For  he  that  is  entered  into  his  rest,  he  also  hath 
ceased  from  his  own  works,  as  God^did  from  his." 

In  proof  that  the  day  of  His  own  rest  was  to  be  the  season  of 
rest  and  prayer  to  His  followers,  our  Lord  met  with  His  disciples 
on  the  very  day  of  His  resurrection.  After  favouring  individuals 
of  them  with  His  presence  and  instructions,  so  that  their  hearts 
burned  within  them  while  he  talked  with  them  by  the  way,  and 
opened  to  them  the  Scriptures,  He  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the 
assembled  eleven,  and  other  friends,  and  said  unto  them,  "  Peace 
be  unto  you.  Why  are  ye  troubled  ?  and  why  do  thoughts  arise 
in  your  hearts  ?  Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  my 
self."1  The  scene  is  thus  described  by  another  evangelist: 

i  Lnk«  xxiv  36,  38,  30 


4  -T        TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  309 

"  Then  the  same  day  at  evening,  being  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
when  the  doors  were  shut,  where  the  disciples  were  assembled,  for 
fear  of  the  Jews,  came  Jesus,  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  saith 
unto  them,  Peace  be  unto  you.  And  when  he  had  so  said,  he 
showed  unto  them  his  hands  and  his  side.  Then  were  the  dis 
ciples  glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord.  Then  said  Jesus  to  them 
again,  Peace  be  unto  you  :  as  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so 
send  I  you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he  breathed  on  them, 
and  saith  unto  them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.  Whose  soever 
sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them  ;  and  whose  soever 
sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained."1  It  is  added  that  "Thomas 
was  not  with  them  when  Jesus  came,"  and  that  when  informed 
by  the  other  disciples  that  they  had  seen  the  Lord,  he  said, 
"  Except  I  shall  see  in  his  hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put 
my  fingers  into  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  my  hand  into  his  side, 
I  will  not  believe." 

The  establishment  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath  still  further  appears  from  the  time  and  incidents 
of  our  Lord's  second  visit  to  his  assembled  followers.  "  And 
after  eight  days,  again  his  disciples  were  within,  and  Thomas 
with  them.  Then  came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood 
in  the  midst,  and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you.  Then  saith  he  to 
Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  behold  my  hands  ;  and  reach 
hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side  :  and  be  not  faithless, 
but  believing."  Here  we  have  plainly  a  stated  day  of  religious 
convocation,  and  that  the  first  day  of  the  week.  From  another 
part  of  the  narrative  it  appears  that  the  disciples  had  returned 
to  their  accustomed  manual  labours.  Their  dependence  on  these 
labours  for  their  subsistence  required  that  they  should  attend  to 
their  secular  calling,  the  more  so  that  their  time  had  lately  been 
occupied,  and  their  thoughts  absorbed  by  the  events  that  pre 
ceded  and  attended  the  crucifixion.  They  needed,  however,  as 
before,  a  weekly  holy  day.  They  could  not  and  would  not 
observe  two  Sabbaths.  The  resurrection  of  their  Lord  had  pre 
scribed  the  proper  day,  and  this,  with  His  visit,  taught  them  to 
expect  His  presence  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Accordingly, 
"  after  eight  days  again  his  disciples  were  within."  And  on  His 

i  John  xx.  19-23. 


310  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH.    . 

part  our  Lord  shows  his  regard  to  the  day.  He  absents  Himself 
from  the  disciples  for  a  whole  week,  and  by  appearing  among 
them  a  second  time  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  in  the  scene 
of  public  worship,  expresses^  in  the  most  emphatic  manner,  his 
approval  of  "the  order,"  both  as  respects  the  time  and  the 
engagements  of  this  infant  Church.  Thus,  too,  the  apostle  Paul 
and  his  friends  tarried  at  Troas  seven  days,  and  yet  the  first  day 
of  the  week  is  the  only  one  mentioned  on  which  the  disciples 
came  together  to  break  'bread,  or  on  which  the  apostle  preached 
to  them.1  We  may  presume  that  it  was  in  like  manner  to  hold 
public  fellowship  with  the  Christians  in  Tyre,  and  to  preach  the 
gospel,  that  his  sojourn  there  too  was  for  the  same  period,  as  thus 
related  :  "  And  finding  disciples,  we  tarried  there  seven  days  : 
who  said  to  Paul  through  the  Spirit,  that  he  should  not  go  up  to 
Jerusalem.  And  when  we  had  accomplished  those  days,  we  de 
parted,  and  went  our  way."2 

The  sacred  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  extends  over 
a  wider  space  than  Jerusalem,  and  to  a  later  time  than  that  of  the 
events  there  that  have  been  mentioned.  We  alluded  to  the  apostle 
Paul's  conduct  at  Troas  as  a  case  in  which  other  days  are  allowed 
to  pass  unnoticed,  and  public  religious  services  are  postponed  till 
the  first  day  of  the  week  should  come  round.  But  his  whole  pro 
ceedings  there,  with  those  of  the  Church,  are  justly  regarded  as 
very  clearly  pointing  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the  recognised 
Christian  Sabbath.  The  narrative  is  as  follows  :  "  And  we  sailed 
away  from  Philippi  after  the  days  of  unleavened  bread,  and  came 
unto  them  to  Troas  in  five  days,  where  we  abode  seven  days. 
And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  disciples  came 
together  to  break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto  them,  ready  to  depart 
on  the  morrow  ;  and  continued  his  speech  until  midnight.  And 
there  were  many  lights  in  the  upper  chamber,  where  they  were 
gathered  together.  And  there  sat  in  a  window  a  certain  young 
man  named  Eutychus,  being  fallen  into  a  deep  sleep  :  and  as  Paul 
was  long  preaching,  he  sunk  down  with  sleep,  and  fell  down  from 
the  third  loft,  and  was  taken  up  dead.  And  Paul  went  down, 
and  fell  on  him,  and  embracing  him,  said,  Trouble  not  yourselves ; 
for  his  life  is  in  him.  When  he,  therefore,  was  come  up  again, 

1  Acts  xx.  7.  z  Acts  xxi.  4,  5. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  311 

and  had  broken  bread,  and  eaten,  and  talked  a  long  while,  even 
till  break  of  day,  so  he  departed.  And  they  brought  the  young 
man  alive,  and  were  not  a  little  comforted."1  Let  these  facts  be 
adverted  to  in  addition  to  that  already  noticed.  The  Christians  at 
Troas  "came  together,"  or  assembled  together,  the  common  phrase 
for  church-meetings  in  the  New  Testament.  As  Peter  talked  with 
Cornelius,  "  he  went  in,  and  found  many  that  were  come  together.'"'2' 
"  Now  in  this  that  I  declare  unto  you  I  praise  you  not,  that  ye 
come  together  not  for  the  better,  but  fo&the  worse.  For  first  of 
all,  when  ye  come  togetJier  in  the  church,  I  hear  that  there  be 
divisions  among  you."3  "  If  therefore  the  whole  church  be  come 
together  into  one  place,  how  is  it  then,  brethren  ?  when  ye  come 
together,  every  one  of  you  hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a 
tongue,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  an  interpretation.  Let  all  things 
be  done  unto  edifying."  4  "  Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  your 
selves  together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is."5  Further,  they  came 
together  "to  break  bread."  That  similar  language  in  Acts 
xxvii.  35  refers  to  an  ordinary  meal,  appears  from  the  previous 
advice  of  the  apostle  to  his  fellow-voyagers,  who  had  fasted  for 
fourteen  days,  to  take  some  food,  as  it  was  for  their  health;  from 
the  words,  "  Then  were  they  all  of  good  cheer,  and  they  also  took 
some  meat ;"  and,  indeed,  from  the  occasion  and  the  persons  so 
employed.  Nor  do  we  doubt  that  in  one  or  two  instances,  besides, 
the  reference  in  such  language  is  to  the  same  thing.  But  when 
it  is  said,  "  They  continued  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fellow 
ship,  and  breaking  of  bread  and  prayer,"  and  when  they  "  came  to 
gether  to  eat  bread,"  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  observance 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  understood.  It  was  a  meeting  for  the 
public  celebration  of  Divine  ordinances  at  which  the  apostle  was 
present  and  preached.  In  a  word,  this  coming  together  was  the 
ordinary  practice  of  the  disciples  at  Troas.  The  use  of  a  common 
expression  for  Christian  worshipping  assemblies  determines  this, 
while  it  is  to  be  observed  in  corroboration  of  the  view,  that  it  is 
not  said  that  the  apostle,  as  he  did  in  the  case  of  the  elders  at 
Ephesus,  called  the  members  of  the  church  together,  but  that  "upon 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  disciples  came  together  to 

i  Acts  xx.  6-12.  2  Acts  x.  27.  »  1  Cor.  xi  17,  18. 

«  1  Cor.  xiv.  23,  26.  «  Heb.  x.  25. 


312  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto  them,  ready  to  depart  on  the 
morrow."  If  the  case  now  described  does  not  intimate  that  the 
Christians  at  Troas  at  least  were  in  the  custom  of  keeping  holy 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  that  one  of  the  apostles  sanctioned 
that  custom  by  everything  that  could  express  sympathy  and  fellow 
ship  in  their  meeting  and  engagements,  we  know  not  what  the 
narrative  can  mean,  or  what  other  terms  could  more  clearly  convey 
the  facts.  The  statement  is  the  more  conclusive  that  the  inci 
dents  are  so  natural  in  their  character  and  expression.  And  what 
different  custom  from  that  at  Troas — prevalent  as  it  was  at  so 
great  a  distance  from  Jerusalem,  and  well-nigh  thirty  years  after 
the  date  of  the  first  Christian  assembly — can  we  suppose  to  have 
then  prevailed  in  any  other  part  of  the  Christian  world  1 

Let  another  case  embracing  a  number  of  churches  supply  the 
answer.  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  it  is  thus  written  : 
"  Now  concerning  the  collection  for  the  saints,  as  I  have  given 
order  to  the  churches  of  Galatia,  even  so  do  ye.  Upon  the  first 
day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God 
hath  prospered  him,  that  there  be  no  gatherings  when  I  come."1 
The  first  day  of  the  week  is  never  before  mentioned  but  as  the 
day  of  the  Eedeemer's  resurrection,  and  of  religious  assemblies 
and  business.  These  are  its  only  distinctions — the  only  marks 
by  which  it  is  discriminated  from  the  other  days  of  the  week,  and 
by  which  we  are  to  know  its  character.  We  are  fully  warranted 
by  this  history,  therefore,  to  regard  it  as  a  sacred  day.  And  here 
we  are  made  acquainted  with  the  important  fact — not  the  less 
certain  that  it  required  no  formal  declaration — that  it  was  well 
known  in  this  its  only  character  by  the  Corinthian  and  Galatian 
churches,  if  not  also  by  "  all  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  both  theirs  and  ours,"  to  whom, 
with  the  Christians  at  Corinth,  the  epistle  is  addressed.  The 
writer  takes  it  for  granted  that  all  Christians  observed  it  as  a  holy 
day.  The  prescription  of  benevolent  contributions  to  be  made  on 
it — not  once  or  twice,  but  constantly — is  only  in  harmony  with 
its  nature.  The  seasons  of  worship  were  anciently  sanctified  by 
such  gifts  and  offerings.2  Our  Lord  asserted  the  doing  of  good 
as  an  appropriate  duty  of  the  Sabbath-day.  The  frequent  period!- 

1  1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  7  3  Deut.  xvi.  10. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  313 

cal  return  of  such  a  day — its  facilities  for  calm  reflection  and  the 
cultivation  of  social  affections — its  bringing  the  rich  and  poor 
together,  and  equalizing  them  in  the  Divine  presence — its  sacred 
recollections/ services,  and  hopes — all  tend  to  promote  beneficence, 
to  impart  principle  and  regularity  to  its  exercise,  and  at  once  to 
prevent  undue  pressure  on  the  resources,  and  to  swell  the  ultimate 
amount,  of  liberality. 

The  expression,  "  Lord's  day,"  in  Rev.  i.  10,  is  justly  regarded 
as  a  decisive  testimony  to  the  Christian  Sabbath.  "  I  was  in  the 
Spirit,"  said  the  apostle  John,  "  on  the  Lord's  day."  This  latter 
expression  corresponds  with  the  phraseology  of  the  Old  Testament, 
"A  Sabbath  to  the  Lord,"  "The  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God." 
and  still  more  with  the  Saviour's  language,  "  The  Son  of  man  is 
Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath-day."1  The  designation  of  "  Lord  "  in 
the  New  Testament  is  usually  to  be  understood  of  Jesus  Christ. 
We  read  of  the  word  of  Christ — the  ministers  of  Christ — the 
Lord's  table — the  cup  of  the  Lord — the  body  and  blood  of  the 
Lord — the  Lord's  supper — the  Lord's  death — so  we  read  of  the 
Lord's  day.  He  has  appropriated  a  day  to  himself  ;  but  as  his 
word,  his  ministers,  his  table,  his  death,  are  for  the  benefit  of 
men,  to  be  applied,  however,  in  securing  that  end,  according  to 
his  prescription, — so  is  it  with  his  day.  Which  day  of  the  week 
that  is,  cannot  be  reasonably  questioned.  The  apostle  refers  to 
it  as  well  known  to  the  churches  of  Asia.  He  knew  that  the 
first  day  of  the  week  was  the  day  of  the  resurrection  and  visits  of 
his  Lord — the  day  held  as  sacred  by  the  churches  of  Troas, 
Corinth,  and  Galatia — and  by  the  simple  mention  of  its  name  as 
the  Lord's,  he,  or  rather  the  Spirit  of  God,  has  authorized  us  to 
conclude  that  "  the  first  day  of  the  week  "  and  the  "  Lord's  day  " 
are  expressions  which  denote  the  same  day.  His  testimony,  more 
over,  proves  that  the  day  was  not  only  honoured  by  the  Christian 
churches  and  by  himself,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  century  from 
the  time  of  the  Redeemer's  advent,  but  honoured  under  the  name 
and  sanction  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

1  Kvpios  K<tl  TOV  cra$3aTOU — rfj  KvpiaKy  yy-tpy.,  a  different  expression  from  the 
day  of  the  Lord,  r)  i]fj,{pa  Kvplov. 


314  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

SEVENTH  PROPOSITION. — IT  IS  IMPOSSIBLE  THAT  THE  FIRST 
DAY  OF  THE  WEEK  SHOULD  HAVE  COME  TO  BE  THUS 
GENERALLY  RECEIVED  AND  OBSERVED  AS  A  HOLY  DAY, 

OR  RATHER  AS   the  weekly  HOLY  DAY,    WITHOUT   DIVINE 

AUTHORITY. 

And  this  for  the  following  reasons  : — 

First,  The  existing  prepossessions  in  favour  of  the  seventh  day. 
It  was  natural  that  the  Jews  should  have  strong  attachments  to 
the  whole  Mosaic  system,  which  was  of  Divine  appointment,  which 
was  that  of  their  fathers,  and  hallowed  in  their  minds  and  hearts 
by  its  antiquity,  glory,  and  so  many  tender  recollections.  How 
difficult,  accordingly,  was  it  for  the  apostles  to  believe  that  all 
distinctions  between  Jews  and  Gentiles  had  ceased  !  The  apostles 
had  to  bear  much  with  their  converted  brethren,  and  to  make 
concessions  to  their  prejudices.  And  yet,  while  they  were  per 
mitted  for  a  time  to  respect  the  former  distinctions  of  meats  and 
days,  we  do  not  find  any  evidence  in  the  New  Testament  that 
they  refused  to  keep  holy  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Many  of 
them,  at  all  events,  with  the  apostles  at  their  head,  sanctified 
that  day.  That  this  should  take  place  in  the  case  of  any,  and 
eventually  to  the  exclusion  of  regard  for  the  seventh  day,  in  that 
of  almost  all,  can,  we  conceive,  be  accounted  for  only  on  the 
ground  that  they  had  sufficient  evidence  and  the  clear  conviction 
that  the  change  of  day  was  of  God. 

Second,  The  regard  which  Jehovah  has  to  his  worship,  and 
his  rejection  of  human  interference  in  its  appointment  and  regula 
tion.  Of  this,  we  have  ample  evidence  in  the  second  command 
ment  ;  in  the  charges  repeatedly  given  to  add  nothing  to  his  words  ; 
and  in  the  condemnation  and  punishment  of  such  persons  as  JN"adab 
and  Abihu  for  offering  strange  fire  on  his  altar,  Jeroboam  for  de 
vising  a  religious  feast  of  his  own  heart,  the  antichristian  powei 
that  should  "think  to  change  times  and  laws,"  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  and  others.  That  the  apostles  and  early  Christians 
should  of  their  own  accord  abandon  the  seventh  day,  and  institute 
the  first  as  a  day  to  the  Lord,  would  be  to  suppose  that  their 
Master  had  permitted  them  to  violate  the  order  of  His  own  house, 
and  to  teach  for  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men. 


TESTIMONY  OP  REVELATION.  315 

Third,  The  abundant  provision  made  for  regulating  all  the 
observances  of  religion.  Jesus  had  before  his  ascension  "  given 
commandments  through  the  Holy  Ghost  unto  the  apostles,"  and 
commissioned  them  to  "  teach"  mankind  "  all  things  whatsoever 
he  had  commanded  them."  And  the  words  of  the  apostle  Paul  to 
the  Thessalonian  Christians  show  the  authority  .under  which  he 
acted  in  his  preaching  and  writings  :  "  We  beseech  you,  brethren, 
and  exhort  you  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  as  ye  have  received  of  us 
how  ye  ought  to  walk  and  to  please  God,  so  ye  would  abound 
more  and  more.  For  ye  know  what  commandments  we  gave  you 
by  the  Lord  Jesus."1  From  several  parts  of  the  New  Testament, 
we  learn  that  in  acting  and  ordering  as  we  have  seen  one  of  them 
did  in  reference  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  they  are  to  be  regarded 
as  ruling  our  conduct,  their  ordinances  and  commandments  being 
those  of  their  Master  and  Lord. 2  How  was  it  possible,  therefore, 
for  them  to  appoint  the  churches  to  assemble  for  worship  on  that 
day,  to  encourage  the  practice,  or  to  induce  believers  to  follow  it, 
if  they  had  not  received  of  the  Lord  how  to  teach  and  act  in  this 
most  important  matter  ? 

Fourth,  The  apostolic  censure  of  the  observance  of  days. 
The  Galatians  were  remonstrated  with  for  this  conduct  :  "  But 
now,  after  that  ye  have  known  God,  or  rather  are  known  of  God, 
how  turn  ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements  whereunto 
ye  desire  again  to  be  in  bondage  1  Ye  observe  days,  and  months, 
and  times,  and  years.  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed 
upon  you  labour  in  vain."3  Now  it  is  impossible  that  inspired 
men  should  both  condemn  the  observance  of  days,  and  yet  observe 
them  themselves,  and  countenance  by  their  words  and  deeds  the 
practice,  unless  the  two  things  were  distinct — unless,  while  other 
days  were  set  aside,  the  first  day  of  the  week  had  come  into 
authorized  and  sacred  use. 

Fifth,  The  prophetic  intimations  of  a  Christian  Sabbath.  If 
the  consecration  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  be  not  the  fulfilment 
of  these  intimations,  they  have  failed  of  accomplishment,  for  that 
was  for  centuries  the  only  recognised  Sabbath,  and  still  is  the 
Sabbath  of  nearly  the  whole  Christian  Church. 

1  1  Thess.  iv.  1,  2. 

i  Acts  xv.  24,  28,  29  ;  Luke  x.  16  ;  1  Cor.  xiv.  37  ;  1  John  iv.  6,         «  GaL  iv.  9-11. 


316  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

Sixth,  The  events  and  blessings  which  have  attended  this  day. 
If  the  ancient  Sabbath  was  attested  by  extraordinary  occurrences, 
not  less  the  new.  The  day  of  the  Redeemer's  resurrection  was  a 
day  of  marvels.  It  was  also  a  day  of  blessing,  when  he  announced 
peace,  breathed  on  His  disciples  the  influences  of  the  Spirit,  gave 
them  their  commission,  and_  held  with  them  the  most  condescend 
ing  and  endeared  intercourse.  It  was  on  the  first  day  of  the  week 
that  He  removed  the  doubts  of  one  of  their  number.  It  was  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  Christians  were  all  with  one 
accord  in  one  place,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  came  down,  an  event  so 
great  in  itself,  and  so  fraught  with  good  to  mankind.  On  this 
day  the  first  Christian  sermon  was  preached ;  thousands  were 
converted,  the  Church  was  fully  formed,  and  the  Lord's  supper 
publicly  celebrated.  It  was  on  the  Lord's  day  that  the  apostle 
John  was  in  the  Spirit,  heard  a  great  voice  as  of  a  trumpet,  saw 
the  glorified  Saviour  in  the  midst  of  the  churches,  and  was  com 
manded  to  write  the  things  which  he  had  seen,  the  things  that 
then  were,  and  the  things  that  should  be  thereafter.  And  it  has 
been  on  the  Christian  Sabbath  ever  since  that  the  greatest  good 
has  been  done  to  mankind,  by  that  Word  and  Grace  which  have 
covered  so  many  regions  of  the  earth  with  moral  beauty,  and  pre 
pared  so  many  human  beings  for  heaven,  and  which  shall,  in  yet 
more  auspicious  times,  reclaim  a  revolted  world  to  the  service  and 
enjoyment  of  its  Maker. 

What,  then,  is  wanting  to  the  evidence  that  the  day  on  which 
Christians  cease  from  labour,  and  worship  their  Divine  Saviour,  is 
truly  the  Sabbath  of  God,  the  Lord's  day  T,  We  have  seen  the 
first  day  of  the  week  to  be  coseval  with  the  second  and  more- 
glorious  rest  of  God,  sanctified  by  His  example  and  word,  and 
blessed  with  His  favour,  presence,  and  grace  from  the  beginning 
till  now.  If  not  "  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made,"  it  is 
surely  its  morning  and  meridian  too.  If  not  the  consummation  of 
"  the  rest  which  remaineth  to  the  people  of  God,"  it  is  certainly 
the  season  of  a  Sabbatism  of  which  heaven  will  be,  in  more  per 
fect  form,  and  more  unceasing  flow,  the  prolongation  for  ever. 


CTSTIMONY  OP  KEVELATION.  317 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work ;  but  the  seventh  day  is  th« 
Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God :  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son, 
nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates." 

NOTHING  ,s  more  certain  than  that  any  portion  of  time,  how 
ever  in  itself  valuable,  or  capable  of  being  turned  to  profitable 
account,  is  in  fact  a  blessing  or  a  curse  according  to  the  purposes 
to  which  it  is  appropriated,  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  spent. 
The  excesses  that  have  usually  attended  the  festivals  of  idolatry, 
and  the  abuse  of  holidays  by  many  of  our  own  people,  are  suffi 
cient  confirmation  of  the  remark.  To  estimate  the  Sabbatic  in 
stitution  aright  we  must  view  it  complexly,  not  as  an  abstraction, 
or  even  as  so  much  time  measured  off  for  any  use  that  men  may 
prefer,  but  in  its  concomitants  of  sacred  design,  appropriate  in 
structions,  fitting  observance,  and  the  blessing  of  its  Author ;  and 
its  importance  must  be  understood  to  consist  in  the  opportunity 
which  at  proper  intervals  it  affords  not  only  of  rest  from  secular 
labour,  but  of  attending  to  objects  and  of  being  acted  on  by 
influences  which  mould  into  their  own  elevated  and  pure  character 
the  nature  of  man,  and  which  without  such  an  arrangement  could 
not  be  to  the  same  extent,  if  at  all,  available. 

One  of  the  designs  of  the  Sabbath  has  ever  been  to  afford  rest 
from  labour,  with  a  view  to  the  refreshment  of  the  animal  nature, 
and  its  invigoration  for  the  work  of  the  six  days. 

The  Almighty  himself,  who  is  never  weary,  rested  from  the 
six  days'  work  of  creation  as  a  pattern  to  man.  He  "  rested  and 
was  refreshed."  And  He  blessed  the  seventh  day,  setting  it 
apart  as  a  day  of  repose  to  human  beings.  The  first  man,  while 


318  DUTIES  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

untainted  by  sin,  had  these  things  in  common  with  us,  that  he 
partook  of  food,  had  an  employment  which  demanded  the  exertion 
of  his  bodily  energies,  and  was  capable  of  sleep — all  involving  the 
means  of  maintaining  the  existence  and  ministering  to  the  well- 
being  and  pleasure  of  his  physical  nature.  As  these  things  were 
compatible  with  perfection  in  excellence  and  happiness,  not  less  so 
were  the  rest  of  night  and  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day.  It  will  be 
admitted  that  had  he  not  fallen  from  purity,  he,  with  his  race, 
would  have  remained  under  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  and  enjoyed 
its  blessings.  It  may  be  conceded,  on  the  other  hand,  that  had 
he,  like  the  angels  that  sinned,  been  abandoned  by  his  Maker,  his 
Sabbath  would  have  ceased  as  irreconcilable  with  a  scene  where 
the  inhabitants  "  rest  not  day  or  night."  But  we  are  ill  qualified 
to  affirm  what  on  certain  suppositions  might  be  the  procedure  of 
an  infinite  Being.  Man,  however,  neither  persevered  in  obedi 
ence,  nor  was  hopelessly  cast  off.  As  he  is  the  object  of  for 
bearance  and  mercy,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  is  placed  beyond 
the  pale  of  the  blessings,  or  exempted  from  the  obligations  of  a 
day  of  holy  and  happy  rest.  There  is  no  intimation  that  the 
statute  was  cancelled,  or  its  benefit  withdrawn.  It  was  given  to 
man  as  a  creature  consisting  of  body  as  well  as  soul,  and  placed 
in  a  material  world.  It  is  plainly  so  expressed  as  to  be  adapted 
to  all  dispensations.  If  man  in  innocence  needed  a  weekly  rest- 
ing-day,  no  less  certainly  was  the  provision  required  by  himself 
and  his  posterity  after  their  transition  to  the  state  involved  in 
the  sentence  :  "  Because  thou  hast  hearkened  unto  the  voice  of 
thy  wife,  and  hast  eaten  of  the  tree,  of  which  I  commanded  thee, 
saying,  Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it  :  cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy 
sake  ;  in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life. 
Thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee  ;  and  thou 
shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field.  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  bread,  till  thou  return  unto  the  ground." l  Accordingly, 
while  we  find  him  precluded  access  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  driven 
from  Eden,  nothing  is  said  implying  that  the  Sabbath  has  been 
set  aside.  Cain  and  such  as  he  went  out  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord — that  is,  voluntarily  forsook  the  scene  of  sacred  privilege, 
af  worship,  and  of  Sabbaths,  that,  like  many  ->f  our  own  day, 

*  Gen.  iii.  17-18. 


TESTTMOIVY  OF  EEVELATION.  319 

they  might  uninterruptedly  prosecute  their  worldly  views  and 
pleasures.  That  such  men  as  Enoch  and  Noah,  who  walked  with 
God,  were  without  the  benefit  and  happiness  of  the  Sabbatic  rest, 
it  is  on  various  grounds  unreasonable  to  conceive.  If  a  brief  life 
as  ours  were  insupportable  without  a  weekly  day  of  repose,  how 
impossible  for  the  patriarchs  to  pass  their  eight  or  nine  centuries 
thus  !  All  their  interests  of  mind  and  body,  time  and  eternity, 
demanded  such  a  day.  It  might  be  the  hard  lot  of  Israel,  when 
borne  down  by  Egyptian  bondage,  to  be  deprived  partially  or 
wholly  of  this  blessing,  but  on  their  arrival  in  the  wilderness  of 
Sin,  they  are  put  in  full  possession  of  the  great  charter  of  human 
liberty  and  rights,  and  begin  to  enjoy  it,  none  making  them  afraid. 
The  law,  as  given  from  Sinai,  sets  forth  the  same  design  of  the 
institution — rest  from  labour  :  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and 
do  all  thy  work  ;  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  :  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy 
son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant, 
nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates  ;  for  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that 
in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day  :  wherefore  the  Lord 
blessed  the  Sabbath-day  and  hallowed  it."1  The  work,  of  which 
there  must  be  a  cessation,  is  the  work  of  our  calling  or  business. 
This  must  all  be  done  in  the  six  days.  On  the  seventh  there 
must  not  be  any  such  work.  Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  the 
prohibition.  And  the  only  reason  why  it  could  be  necessary  to 
illustrate  its  meaning  is  that  the  human  mind  can  pervert  the 
clearest  law  to  its  own  sinister  purposes.  Hence  it  is  that  we  are 
furnished  with  Divine  comments  on  this  law.  The  prophet 
Isaiah  informs  us,  that  it  is  against  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  to  do 
our  own  ways,  or  to  speak  our  own  words,  or  to  find  our  own 
pleasure  on  that  day.  The  terms  of  the  law  imply  all  this — for 
its  object  is  rest  from  all  secular  work — and  how  can  he  fulfil 
this  object  who  busies  himself  with  action,  or  word,  or  thought 
about  such  work  1  But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  one  could  reasonably 
suppose  from  this  commandment  that  a  sheep  was  not  to  be  lifted 
from  a  pit,  that  the  diseased  must  not  be  cured,  or  that  the 
hungry  must  not  be  fed.  Actions  necessary  for  the  preservation 

i  Exod.  xx.  9-11. 


320  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

of  life  or  the  relief  of  distress  do  not  constitute  ordinary  secular 
work.  It  was  to  clear  the  law  from  such  mistaken  views  of  it 
that  our  Lord  condescended  to  teach  the  Jews  that  works  of 
piety,  necessity,  and  mercy,  might  be  done  on  the  Sabbath,  which 
they  themselves  knew  might  be  done,  and  did  not  object  to  till 
they  had  a  purpose  to  serve.  As  Jesus  was  "  Lord  of  the  Sab 
bath,"  he  knew  best  its  design  and  requirements,  and  therefore 
all  these  works  must  have  been  accordant  with  both.  He  re 
peatedly  asked  whether  such  actions  were  not  agreeable  to  the 
law,  and  his  enemies  themselves  could  not  say  that  they  were  not. 
Yet  our  Lord  did  not  make  a  practice  or  labour  of  healing  on  the 
Sabbath  ;  nor  did  he  authorize  his  disciples  to  adopt  a  custom  of 
plucking  and  bruising  ears  of  corn  ;  nor  command  a  systematic 
preparation  of  appliances  for  providing  against  the  possible  acci 
dent  of  an  animal  falling  into  a  pit.  It  is  deeds  of  mercy  to  the 
suffering — deeds  essential  to  the  duties  of  piety — deeds  of  neces 
sity,  incapable  of  being  provided  f<5r  beforehand  or  postponed,  that 
he  practised  and  recommended. 

And  when  we  examine  the  narratives  cf  the  New  Testament, 
we  find  nothing,  after  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  dispensa 
tion,  done  by  Christ,  or  his  apostles,  or  the  churches,  that  was 
contrary  to  the  old  commandment  of  resting  one  day  in  seven.  We 
have  seen  that  the  institution  is  permanent,  and  what  would  it  be 
without  rest  ?  And  the  testimony  of  Christian  writers  after  the 
time  of  the  apostles  is  most  harmonious  as  to  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day  as  a  season  of  abstinence  from  labour. 

As  rest,  then,  has  been  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  in  all  periods 
of  its  recognition  in  Scripture,  it  is  the  law  now  as  really  as  ever. 
Now  as  formerly  it  is  a  duty  to  cease  from  our  usual  business. 
The  plough  must  stand — the  counting-house  and  sale-room  and 
workshop  must  be  shut — the  artisan  must  suspend  the  use  of  his 
implements — the  transactions  of  buying,  selling,  and  getting  gain 
must  be  discontinued — the  author  and  scribe  must  drop  their 
pens — the  man  of  literature  and  science  must  lay  aside  his  ordin 
ary  reading  and  investigations.  We  have  said,  all  this  must  be, 
or  ought  to  be  ;  but  what  is  thus  imperative,  is  at  the  same  time 
so  reasonable  and  good  as  should  be  felt  to  be  freedom  and  plea 
sure. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  321 

Nor  are  our  usual  avocations  all  that  ought  to  be  suspended  on 
the  Sabbath  of  God.  We  are  not  to-do  any  secular  work  ;  we 
are  not  to  do  our  own  ways,  or  speak  our  own  words,  or  find  our 
own  pleasure.  All  that  does  not  involve  sacred  service  must  be 
laid  aside,  as  without  this  there  is  not  rest.  Suppose,  for  example, 
the  day  to  be  spent  in  unnecessary  thoughts  about  the  business  of 
the  world,  it  would  not  gain  its  object  of  rest  to  the  body,  as 
continual  thought  about  one  set  of  matters  is  destructive  to  those 
material  organs  which  the  mind  employs,  and  thus  to  the  whole 
system.  The  statesman,  equally  as  the  man  who  is  constantly 
engaged  in  manual  labour,  has  a  short  life.  Suppose,  again,  that 
the  day  were  devoted  to  recreation,  amusement,  or  convivial  in 
dulgence,  All  observation  and  experience  show  that  these  afford 
no  proper  rest  to  body  or  mind.  Such  occupation  converts  the  day 
into  a  working-day  of  the  worst  description.  He  who  knows  our 
frame,  and  all  whose  ordinances  are  adapted  to  its  wants  and  wel 
fare,  has  prescribed  rest  from  our  own  pleasures,  and  from  our  own 
words  (which  are  in  one  sense  actions,  and  bring  no  repose  to  the 
spirit)  as  well  as  from  our  own  works  and  ways. 

To  fulfil  this  purpose  of  rest,  the  whole  day  must  be  so  spent.  A 
Sabbath-day  is  just  as  long  as  another  day.  We  find  the  Saviour 
rising  early  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
Sabbath's  sun  had  set  that  he  proceeded  to  heal  the  multitudes 
of  sick  that  were  brought  to  him.1  The  hours  allowed  for  repose 
are,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  great  majority  of  mankind,  too 
precious  to  admit  of  being  alienated  from  their  great  purpose. 
One  infraction  of  the  law  has  its  injurious  effect.  Many  smaller 
deviations  constitute  a  large  total  of  injury.  The  smaller  leads 
on  to  the  greater.  •  And  admit  the  principle  that  one  hour  of  the 
day  of  rest  may  be  sacrificed,  where  shall  the  admission  and  the 
practice  stop,  short  of  the  abandonment  of  the  whole  day  1  Here, 
too,  the  Author  of  the  Sabbath  has  evinced  his  wisdom  and  his 
goodness  in  exactly  defining  and  peremptorily  requiring  a  certain 
time — a  day  of  rest.  So  important  is  the  object  of  this  part  of 
the  arrangement,  the  distribution  of  all  time  into  that  of  work 
and  that  of  rest,  that  no  encroachment  must  take  place  on  the 
smaller  proportion  allotted  to  the  latter  object.  A  portion  ia 

'  Luke  iv.  18-41. 


322  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

rather  allowed  to  be  taken  from  the  greater  and  added  to  the  less. 
The  obligation  of  labour  on  the  six  days  is  as  binding  as  rest  on 
the  seventh,  but  not  in  the  same  measure.  Secular  days  may  be 
applied  in  certain  circumstances  otherwise  than  in  the  work  of 
our  callings,  but  we  have  no  liberty  to  throw  away  any  part  of 
the  seventh  day.  One  abstraction  from  ordinary  time  which  is 
allowed  and  required,  is  the  portion  of  it  that  is  necessary  to  pre 
paration  for  the  day  of  rest.  The  children  of  Israel  gathered  and 
prepared  the  Sabbath's  manna  on  the  preceding  day.  If  we  are 
fully  to  enjoy  our  rest,  it  is  necessary,  when  the  time  of  it  arrives, 
that  we  be  as  completely  disengaged  as  possible  from  disturbing 
work  and  cares,  and  this  can  be  accomplished  only  by  despatching 
business  so  that  no  violent  transition  is  required. 

But  rest  for  bodily  refreshment  and  invigoration  is  not  the  only 
or  chief  design  of  the  Sabbatic  institute.  Another  and  higher 
purpose  of  its  rest  was,  that  it  might  give  man  facilities  for  sacred 
engagements.  The  law  is,  "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep 
it  holy,"  and  the  example  of  Jehovah  is  set  forth  as  our  pattern. 
But  what  was  His  procedure  ?  He  rested  from  one  class  of  works, 
but  not  from  all  working.  In  like  manner  we  are  to  rest  from  the 
works  appropriated  to  the  six  days,  but  not  from  all  activity. 
This  would  be  the  rest  of  a  mere  animal,  not  of  a  man.  It  would 
be  an  impossibility.  The  spirit  of  man,  like  its  Maker,  is  from 
its  very  nature  incessantly  active.  And  this  very  activity  is 
compatible  with  continued  mental  vigour  and  bodily  health. 
Variety  of  exercise  both  of  body  and  mind  is,  under  certain  con 
ditions  and  limitations,  the  repose  and  refreshment  of  both.  The 
person  who  has  toiled  with  his  hands  during  the  week  finds  it 
rest,  not  only  to  cease  from  such  labour,  but  to  exercise  his  mmd 
on  intellectual  subjects.  The  other  person  who  has  laboured 
mentally  during  the  week  finds  his  spirit  refreshed  by  a  change 
of  theme.  Nor  must  we  forget  what  is  the  chief  ingredient  in 
the  felt  rest  of  both — the  change  from  the  unsatisfying  and  dis 
tracting  things  of  earthly  pursuit  to  intercourse  with  those  tran 
quillizing  and  gladdening  objects  of  a  spiritual  and  holy  heaven, 
to  which  man's  nature  was  originally  adapted,  and  without  which 
it  can  never  be  in  its  proper  state  of  health,  order,  and  happi- 
ness. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  323 

It  is  a  great  truth  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  both 
for  the  health  of  his  body  and  for  the  good  of  his  mind.  But 
when  this  oracle  was  uttered,  it  was  to  overthrow  the  idea  that 
man  was  made  for  the  Sabbath,  not  the  idea  that  the  Sabbath 
was  made  for  God.  Man  himself  was  made  for  the  Divine  ser 
vice  and  glory,  and  this  is  the  highest  end  of  the  Sabbath  as  of 
all  things. 

"  That  as  the  world  serves  ns,  we  may  serve  Thee, 
And  both  Thy  servants  be." 1 

The  glory  of  Jehovah  required  a  day  on  which  man  should  be 
more  fully  than  on  other  days  engaged  in  serving  Him — on  which 
rent  should  be  paid  to  the  Proprietor,  tribute  to  the  Government 
• — on  which  the  sons  of  God  should  come  together  and  swear  fealty 
to  their  Master — on  which  subjects  should  wait  on  their  King, 
and  testify  their  reverence  and  loyalty — on  which  the  head  of  the 
lower  creation  should  offer  the  collected  homage  of  all  his  charge 
to  the  universal  Lord.  The  Sabbath  is  "  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  " — it  is  "  the  Lord's  day."  It  is  designed  for  man's 
benefit  subordinately,  but  it  is  not  man's  day,  and  therefore  not  a 
day  for  man's  business.  It  is  God's  day,  and  therefore  a  day  for 
God's  work.  And  it  is  beneficial  to  man  just  in  the  measure  in 
which  it  is  applied  to  its  chief  object,  the  serving  and  honouring 
of  its  Author. 

The  God  of  the  Sabbath  has  prescribed  its  business.  In  all 
ages  there  has  been  a  service  appointed  for  that  day.  It  would 
appear  that  Adam  himself  had  a  special  work  to  perform  on  it. 
While  his  thoughts  and  desires  were  all  holy  in  the  engagements 
of  the  six  days,  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  his  perfect  excellence  to 
suppose  that  his  mind  required  once  a  week  a  day  of  more  im 
mediate  fellowship  with  his  Maker.  The  holiness  of  an  angel  is 
that  of  continual  immediate  consecration  to  God.  The  holiness  of 
an  embodied  spirit  is  that  of  a  creature  devoted  to  the  service  of 
God  in  secular  occupations  for  one  period  of  time,  and  in  direct 
homage  for  another  period  of  time.  Man  is  finite,  and  while  en 
gaged  in  the  foriner  cannot  attend  with  equal  intensity  to  the 
latter.  And  while  necessary  to  his  own  full  happiness,  it  was 
i  Hercert. 


324  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

requisite  as  a  duty  to  his  Maker  that  innocent  man  should  offer  g 
special  weekly  homage  to  his  Creator,  Benefactor,  and  King. 

But  passing  from  this  period  of  man's  history,  as  to  which  our 
information  is  scanty,  and  looking  to  the  subsequent  accounts  of  Sab 
bath  observance,  we  find  increasing  light  thrown  on  this  subject. 

It  is  a  principal  part  of  the  duty  of  the  Sabbath  to  attend 
the  house  of  God,  and  engage  in  its  services  of  praise,  prayer,  and 
religious  instruction.  Early  in  the  history  of  mankind  are  Cain 
and  Abel  mentioned  as  bringing  their  offerings  unto  the  Lord. 
TSiis  was  "  in  process  of  time,"  or  at  the  end  of  days.  As  the 
Sabbath  was  a  divine  ordinance,  Abel,  a  good  man,  must  have 
observed  it,  and  Cain,  who  had  not  yet  cast  off  all  religion,  must 
have  been,  as  formerly  remarked,  too  engrossed  with  the  world  to 
have  any  other  day  to  spare  for  his  worship.  In  the  acceptance 
of  Abel's  offering  and  in  the  rejection  of  Cain's,  we  see  the  Divine 
approbation  of  worship  that  was  according  to  appointment,  and  the 
©ivine  disapprobation  of  a  service  that  wanted  authority.  The 
stated  day  and  place  had  been  attended  to  by  Cain,  else  there  would 
have  been  a  will-worship  which  would  be  condemned,  as  well  as 
his  want  of  an  offering  of  blood.  Cain  soon  after  went  out  from 
the  presence  of  the  Lord — not  from  God's  presence  absolutely,  but 
froEi  his  gracious  presence — the  scene  of  Sabbaths  and  worship, 
and  therefore  of  Divine  favour.  While  men  were  few,  the  ser 
vices  of  the  Sabbath  were  comparatively  private  and  domestic. 
But  in  course  of  time,  it  is  said,  "  Then  began  men  to  call  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord" — that  is,  more  publicly  to  profess  or  invoke 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  Under  the  Mosaic  economy,  there  was 
the  public  worship  of  the  tabernacle,  temple,  and  synagogue  on 
the  Sabbath.  And  under  Christianity,  the  followers  of  the  Saviour 
are"  found  meeting  together  on  his  day  for  sacred  service. 

Of  the  services  connected  with  the  house  of  God  under  both 
economies  it  will  be  proper  here  to  present  a  brief  enumeration. 

Prayer  was  so  much  the  practice  of  the  ancient  church  that  the 
house  of  God  is  called  the  house  of  prayer ;  and  prayer  was  no 
ceremonial  service  which  has  passed  away,  for  that  house  of 
prayer  was  to  be  for  all  people,  and  the  first  Christian  churches 
"  continued  in  prayer."  Praise  was  another  part  of  the  public 
worship.  "Praise  waiteth  for  thee,  0  God,  in  Zion."  "Enter 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  323 

his  gates  with  thanksgiving,  and  his  courts  with  praise."  Christ 
sang  a  hymn  with  his  disciples  after  the  institution  of  the  Supper. 
And  his  first  followers  "  were  continually  in  the  temple,  praising 
and  blessing  God."  The  reading  and  preaching  of  the  Word  are 
ordinances  common  to  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Churches.  In 
the  former,  "  the  prophets  were  read  every  Sabbath-day"  (Acts 
xiii.  27),  and  "Moses  of  old  time  hath  in  every  city  them  that 
preach  him,  being  read  in  the  synagogues  every  Sabbath-day" 
(Acts  xv.  21).  This,  like  praise  and  prayer,  being  a  part  of  the 
worship  of  the  synagogue,  and  not  of  a  ceremonial  character,  is 
properly  continued  in  the  Christian  Church ;  and  we  find  Paul 
giving  charges  for  the  reading  of  his  Epistles  in  the  churches 
(1  Thess.  v.  27  ;  Col.  iv.  16).  Ezra  not  only  read  the  Scriptures 
but  gave  the  sense.  When  Christ  ascended  on  high  He  gave 
pastors  and  teachers  for  the  edifying  of  His  body,  the  Church.  The 
apostles  preached  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  at  Troas,  and  wherever 
they  went,  on  the  Lord's  day,  though  not  exclusively  on  that  day. 
One  of  them  solemnly  charges  Timothy  to  preach  the  Word,  and 
instructs  him  to  commit  this  trust  to  faithful  men  who  should  be 
able  to  teach  others.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  on  an  ordinance 
of  which  the  Scriptures  are  so  full.  The  offering  of  their  sub 
stance  for  the  service  of  God  is  another  duty  of  the  assembled 
worshippers  on  the  Sabbath.  By  such  contributions  were  the 
priests,  and  the  poor,  and  the  expenses  of  religious  institutions 
provided  for  under  the  law.  The  Israelites  were  not  to  appear 
before  the  Lord  empty,  and  Paul  gives  instructions  to  the  churches 
to  perform  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  a  similar  service.  In  the 
Christian  Church  baptism  was  to  accompany  instruction,  and  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  administered  on  the  Lord's  day. 

All  these  ordinances  supposed  not  only  persons  to  dispense 
them,  but  persons  to  wait  on  the  dispensation  and  enjoy  its  bene 
fits.  In  ancient  times  he  was  pronounced  blessed  who  waited  at 
the  posts  of  Wisdom's  gates.  In  New  Testament  times,  it  is 
said,  "  How  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they  have  not 
heard?"  "Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  yourselves  together, 
as  the  manner  of  'some  is ;  but  exhorting  one  another,  and  so 
much  the  more  as  ye  see  the  day  approaching.  For  if  we  sin 
wilfully  after  that  we  have  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth, 

If, 


326  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

there  remaineth  no  more  sacriiice  for  sins."  The  same  danger 
was  incurred  at  the  very  outset  of  religion.  Cain's  going  out 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  led  not  only  to  his  own  ruin,  but 
to  that  universal  corruption  of  manners  among  his  descendants, 
which,  infecting  also  the  descendants  of  Seth,  brought  on  the 
flood  that  swept  not  merely  all  save  one  family  from  the  land  of 
the  living ;  but  millions,  there  is  reason  to  fear,  into  the  place  of 
woe.  And  all  indifference  to  the  public  means  of  grace  and  wor 
ship,  evinced  by  total  desertion  of  the  sanctuary,  or  by  occasional 
unnecessary  absences,  is  an  act  of  contempt  to  the  great  King  of 
the  Church,  and  proves  that  apostasy  from  the  truth  and  from 
the  ways  of  God  has  taken  one  of  its  most  decided  steps.  The 
evil  is  the  more  criminal  and  injurious  that,  besides  involving  a 
personal  neglect  of  the  Creator  and  Redeemer,  it  is  an  omission 
of  an  important  testimony  to  the  world  on  behalf  of  religion. 
How  becoming  and  profitable  when  "the  whole  Church  conies 
together  !"  And  there  are  those  who  are  ever  so  regular  in  this 
matter  that  nothing  but  dire  necessity  prevails  to  make  their  seats 
empty.  These  are  the  persons  who  are  likely  to  profit  by  the 
means  of  grace,  and  who,  as  far  as  this  goes,  strengthen  the 
hands  and  encourage  the  hearts  of  the  ministers  of  religion,  rear 
orderly  families,  and  build  up  the  Church  of  God.  One  thing 
ought  to  be  added  as  of  no  small  importance.  We  refer  to 
punctuality  in  keeping  appointments  with  God,  the  want  of  which 
is  surely  very  like  an  evidence  of  indifference  to  His  service. 
They  were  men  of  a  different  spirit,  of  whom  one  of  their  number 
could  say,  "  Now,  therefore,  are  we  all  here  present  before  God, 
to  hear  all  things  commanded  thee  of  God." 

"  Sundays  observe ;  think  when  the  bells  do  chime, 
"Pis  angels'  music,  therefore  come  not  late : 

God  then  deals  blessings.  .  .   . 
Let  vain  or  busy  thoughts  have  there  no  part ; 

Bring  not  thy  plough,  thy  plots,  thy  pleasures  thithofc 
Christ  purged  His  temple,  so  must  thou  thy  heart."1 
*  Herbert's  Temple. 


TESTIMONY  OF  IIEVELATION.  32 7 


CHAPTER  V. 

DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"  I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day." 

THE  Sabbath  is  a  day  appropriated  to  the  services  of  domestic 
piety.  "It  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  your  God  in  all  your 
dwellings." 

Family  worship  is  one  of  its  duties.  It  is  not  the  only  day 
for  that  interesting  and  profitable  service,  for  it  is  not  the  only  day 
on  which  families  stand  in  need  of,  and  receive  blessings  from 
above ;  it  is  not  the  only  day,  therefore,  on  which  it  is  proper 
and  necessary  for  them  to  acknowledge  their  Benefactor.  But 
certainly  the  Sabbath  is  a  day  on  which  it  would  be  peculiarly 
inexcusable  and  criminal  to  omit  such  a  duty,  and  on  which  it 
ought  to  be  performed  with  special  interest  and  care.  The  daily 
sacrifice  under  the  law  was  doubled  on  the  seventh  day,  and  in 
the  temple  service  of  Ezekiel  was  to  be  tripled.1  The  fourth 
commandment  is  specially  directed  to  heads  of  families,  requiring 
them,  as  such,  to  keep  the  day  holy.  On  that  day  "  it  is  a 
good  thing  to  show  forth  God's  loving-kindness  in  the  morning, 
and  his  faithfulness  every  night."  Reason  itself  dictates  this  as 
the  duty  of  every  morning  and  evening.  The  heathen  had  their 
household  gods.  The  members  of  families  salute  their  head  as 
they  part  at  night  and  meet  in  the  morning,  and  can  they  retire 
and  assemble  without  any  recognition  of  Him  from  whom  their 
being  and  blessings  are  all  derived  ?  "  The  ox  knoweth  his 
owner,  the  ass  his  master's  crib."  "If  I  be  a  father,  where  is 
mine  honour  1  If  I  be  a  master,  where  is  my  fear  ?"  A  service, 
BO  evidently  to  reason  itself  a  duty  and  a  privilege,  required  not 

1  Ezek.  xlvi.  4,  5.  Hence  perhaps  the  practice,  at  one  time  more  common,  than,  we 
presume,  it  now  is,  in  Scotland,  of  the  observance  of  worship  in  families  three  timea  ua 
the  Lord's  day. 


328  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

BO  much  prescription,  as  directing  and  animating  examples,  pro 
mises  to  encourage  its  observance,  and  warnings  to  deter  us  from 
its  omission.  And  we  have  all  these.  We  see  Job  offering  sacri 
fices  continually  for  his  children  ;  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  as 
they  journeyed  with  their  families,  building  altars  wherever  they 
went ;  David,  after  engaging  in  public  worship,  returning  to 
bless  his  household ;  Esther  fasting  with  her  maidens  ; 1  Daniel 
going  into  his  house,  and  kneeling  down  and  praying  three  times 
a  day,  as  he  had  done  aforetime,  which  was  family  prayer,  since 
otherwise  it  could  not  be  known,  as  it  was,  to  be  his  custom  ; 
Cornelius  fearing  the  Lord  with  his  house,  and  praying  in  his 
house  or  with  his  household ;  above  all,  our  Lord  praying  with 
his  family  of  disciples,  and  teaching  them  how  to  pray.  These 
are  examples,  and  we  have  the  following  promise  and  warning  : 
"  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching  anything 
that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven."  "Pour  out  thy  wrath  upon  the  families  that 
call  not  on  thy  name."  The  worship  of  a  family  includes,  with 
prayer,  the  melody  of  praise,  and  the  devout  reading  of  a  portion 
of  the  sacred  volume.  "  The  voice  of  rejoicing"  was  heard  of  old 
"  in  the  tabernacles  of  the  righteous."  Paul  and  Silas  did  not 
omit  to  sing  praises  to  God  even  in  a  prison.  Christians  are  thus 
commanded  :  "  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in 
all  wisdom  ;  teaching  and  admonishing  one  another  in  psalms 
and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts 
to  the  Lord."  The  religious  instruction  of  families  is  the  business 
of  every  day.  It  was  no  ceremonial  rule  which  enjoined  parents 
to  speak  of  the  Divine  law  to  their  children  day  by  day,  as  they 
rose  up  and  sat  down,  in  the  house  and  by  the  way — and  to  train 
up  a  child  in  the  way  it  should  go.  This  is  the  law  of  Christ  in 
all  ages.  "  Ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath  ;  but 
bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  "  I 
know  him" — Abraham — "  that  he  will  command  his  children  and 
his  household  after  him."  Solomon  bears  testimony  to  his  father's 
care,  and  walks  in  his  steps.2  Hezekiah  appears  to  have  had 
three  great  objects  in  view  for  his  remaining  life  on  recovery  from 

1  "  Fasting  is  always  connected  with  prayer  in  Scripture."— M'Crie's  Estfor,  p.  13ft. 
8  Prov.  iv.  1-4. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  329 

sickness — -walking  humbly,  the  praise  of  God  in  the  temple,  and 
making  known  divine  truth  to  his  children.  Timothy  is  congratu 
lated  on  his  unfeigned  faith  which  dwelt  first  in  his  grandmother 
Lois  and  his  mother  Eunice,  and  on  his  having  from  a  child  known 
the  holy  Scriptures — by  whom  he  was  taught  them  it  is  unneces 
sary  to  say — "  which  were  able  to  make  him  wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus."1  This  "  delightful  task" 
cannot  be  too  regularly  and  diligently  performed  during  the  week, 
and  when  thus  attended  to,  answers  the  important  end  of  showing 
the  young  that  religion  is  a  matter  for  every  day.  One  day's 
instruction,  too,  would  do  little  comparatively  to  inform  the  mind 
— one  day's  training  would  do  little  to  check  inclinations  to  evil, 
and  to  form  habits  of  goodness.  But  the  Lord's  day  presents 
more  abundant  time,  leisure,  opportunity,  and  calm  for  calling  a 
family  together,  and  ascertaining  and  promoting  their  progress  in 
Divine  knowledge.  The  sacredness  of  the  day  and  its  associations 
give  additional  impression  to  what  is  taught  on  it.  It  is  worthy 
of  notice  that,  after  preaching  to  the  multitude,  our  Lord  taught 
his  disciples  in  private.2 

Conversation  on  "the  great  things  of  God's  law"  is  another 
duty  of  a  family  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  primitive  Christians 
saluted  each  other  every  first  day  of  the  week  with  the  words, 
"  The  Lord  is  risen."  The  conversation  of  Christ  and  his  disciples 
related  almost  entirely  to  such  subjects,  even  on  common  days. 
And  on  all  the  Sabbaths  and  Lord's  days  which  the  Redeemer 
spent  on  earth,  and  the  conversation  of  which  is  recorded,  his  dis 
course,  except  a  sentence  or  two  relating  to  matters  of  necessity, 
bore  on  the  things  that  concerned  salvation  and  eternity,  so  that 
men  were  constrained  on  one  of  these  days  to  wonder  at  "  the 
gracious  words  that  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth;"  on  another  to 
say,  «  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God  ;" 
and  on. a  third  to  exclaim,  "  Did  not  our  hearts  burn  within  us, 
while  he  talked  with  us  by  the  way,  and  while  he  opened  to  us 
the  Scriptures  ?"  And  can  that  be  restraint  or  bondage  which  the 
benevolent  Saviour  has  taught  us  by  his  example  ?  or  can  we  be 
wrong  wThen  we  walk  in  his  steps  1  If  the  mind  that  was  in  him 
be  in  us,  in  proportion  as  it  is  so  will  grace,  as  it  was  with  him,  bo 

1  2  Tim.  I  5 ;  iii.  15.  a  Mark  iv.  84. 


330  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

poured  into  our  lips,  for  "  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the 
mouth  speaketh."  We  err  in  not  speaking  more  on  common  days 
of  the  subjects  on  which  the  Saviour  delighted  to  expatiate.  How 
mean  are  all  our  secular  matters  compared  with  the  interests  of 
the  soul,  the  things  of  God's  law,  the  great  salvation,  and  a  mo 
mentous  eternity  !  David  invited  all  that  feared  God  to  come  near 
and  he  would  tell  them — about  his  wars,  his  prowess,  and  wealth  ? 
— no,  but  what  God  had  done  for  his  soul.  To  a  commonplace 
question  from  a  king,  Jacob  returned  a  pious  and  an  instructive 
answer.  Moses  and  Jethro  sanctified  their  meeting  by  sacrifice. 
The  men  in  Malachi's  time  who  "  spake  often  one  to  another," 
'must  have  spoken  of  the  name  on  which  they  "  thought."  Chris* 
and  Moses  and  Elias  spake  (some  conceive  that  the  day  of  the 
transfiguration  was  the  Sabbath-day)  of  the  decease  which  Jesus 
should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  "  A  word  about  Christ,"  said 
Ussher  to  a  friend,  "  ere  we  part."  And  if  this  should  be  the 
most  delightful,  as  it  is  incomparably  the  most  important  and 
glorious  subject  for  every-day  converse,  how  especially  should  the 
Sabbath  be  felt  to  be  its  appropriate  season !  Brain  erd  says  01 
those  who  talked  on  the  Sabbath  of  secular  affairs,  "  Oh,  I 
thought  what  a  hell  it  would  be  to  live  with  such  men  to 
eternity."  And  again,  in  reference  to  .some  irreligious  characters  : 
"  All  their  discourse  turned  on  the  things  of  the  world,  which  was 
no  small  exercise  to  my  mind.  Oh,  what  a  hell  it  would  be  to 
spend  an  eternity  with  such  men  !  Well  might  David  say,  I 
beheld  the  transgressors,  and  was  grieved.  But  adored  be  God, 
heaven  is  a  place  into  which  no  unclean  thing  enters."1 

Personal  devotion,  and  attention  to  the  means  of  spiritual  im 
provement  in  private,  form  a  congenial  work  of  the  Lord's  day. 
The  study  of  God's  word,  communing  with  our  own  hearts,  re 
flection  on  our  past  lives,  the  remembrance  of  our  Creator,  the 
consideration  of  the  work  of  redemption,  the  anticipation  of  death, 
judgment,  and  eternity,  and  the  pouring  out  of  the  soul  in  prayer 
to  God,  these  are  duties  of  every  day,  and  specially  of  a  day  that 
affords  so  many  facilities  and  reasons  for  such  occupations.  Said 
a  good  man,  "  0  how  I  love  thy  law  !  it  is  my  meditation  all 
the  day."  To  quote  a  psalm  or  song  for  the  Sabbath-day  :  "  It 

i  Edwards'  Works  (1839),  vol.  ii.  pp.  334,  337. 


TESTIMONY  OF  KEVELATIOJf.  331 

is  a  good  thing  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  and  to  sing  praises 
to  thy  name,  0  Most  High.  For  thou,  Lord,  hast  made  me 
glad  through  thy  work  :  I  will  triumph  in  the  works  of  thy 
hands.  0  Lord,  how  great  are  thy  works  !  and  thy  thoughts  are 
very  deep."  The  feelings  of  good  men  in  anticipating  and  re 
flecting  on  the  public  services  of  the  sanctuary  are  thus  indicated  : 
"  I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  Let  us  go  into  the  house  of 
the  Lord."  "A  day  in  thy  courts  is  better  than  a  thousand." 
"  When  I  remember  these  things,  I  pour  out  my  soul  in  me  :  for 
I  had  gone  with  the  multitude  ;  I  went  with  them  to  the  house 
of  God,  with  the  voice  of  joy  and  praise,  with  a  multitude  that 
kept  holy  day."  The  Sabbath,  "  the  holy  of  the  Lord,"  was  to 
be  called  "  honourable  "  and  "a  delight ;"  and  as  the  command 
was  that  persons  were  on  that  day  not  to  do  their  own  ways  or 
find  their  own  pleasure,  the  ways  they  were  to  do  were  God's 
ways,  and  the  pleasure  they  were  to  find  was  pleasure  in  him  and 
in  his  service. 

No  pretence  of  personal  or  family  duties  can  exempt  from  the 
obligations  of  public  worship.  But  neither  must  public  interfere 
with  domestic,  nor  either  with  personal  duties.  If  there  is  one 
class  of  engagements  that  are  more  than  another  an  evidence  to  a 
person  himself  of  his  own  piety,  it  is  the  class  of  personal  duties, 
secret  prayer,  meditation,  self-examination,  and  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  of  other  holy  books.  And  yet  it  is  not  the 
observance  of  certain  practices  that  shows  the  character  so  much 
as  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  performed.  How  is  it  with  us  in 
this  respect  1  Are  we  seen  by  Him  who  seeth  in  secret  retiring 
from  society  on  the  Lord's  day,  that  we  may  converse  with  our 
spirits,  and  with  their  great  and  gracious  Father  and  Redeemer  ? 
Alas  !  if  it  be  not  so,  it  is  too  certain  that  we  are  not  "  spiritually 
minded,  which  is  life  and  peace,  but  carnally  minded,  which  is 
death."  Our  attendance  in  the  house  of  God  in  this  case  is  a 
mere  self-righteous  task,  instead  of  a  work  of  gratitude  and  love  ; 
a  cloak  to  hide  us  from  ourselves,  instead  of  a  gratification  and  a 
profitable  discipline  of  the  heart. 

It  is  in  accordance  with  the  nature  and  designs  of  the  Sabbath 
to  devote  a  portion  of  it  to  works  of  benevolence  and  mercy. 
And  our  Lord,  who  hath  left  us  an  .example  that  we  should  walk 


332  DUTIES  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

in  his  steps,  calls  us  by  his  own  practice  to  these  labours  of  love. 
On  the  Sabbath  he  cured  a  demoniac,  and  healed  Simon's  wife's 
mother  of  a  fever.  We  find  him  afterwards  restoring  to  strength 
on  that  day  the  man  who  had  for  thirty-eight  years  been  impo 
tent,  and  commanding  him  to  take  up  his  bed  and  walk.  He 
next  vindicates  his  disciples  against  the  cavils  of  persons  who  had 
censured  them  for  plucking  some  ears  of  corn,  and  rubbing  them 
in  their  hands,  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  their  hunger.  He 
further  heals  a  man  whose  hand  was  withered,  and  gives  sight  to 
another  who  had  been  bora  blind,  having  previously  prepared 
clay  and  appl'ied  it  to  the  man's  eyes.  He  looses  from  her  infir 
mity  a  woman  who  had  been  for  eighteen  years  bowed  together 
by  Satan,  and  cures  a  man  of  the  dropsy.  The  apostle  Paul,  who 
says,  Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  am  of  Christ,  and  who  re 
membered  that  God  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice,  abruptly 
ended  his  discourse  at  Troas,  that  he  might  employ  means  for 
restoring  to  life  the  young  man,  Eutychus,  who,  overpowered  with 
sleep,  had  "  fallen  down  from  the  third  loft,  and  was  taken  up 
dead."  "Pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  God  the  Father" 
consists  greatly  in  this,  "  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  the  widow  in 
their  affliction."  "As  we  have  opportunity,"  we  are  to  "do 
good,"  temporal  and  spiritual,  "unto  all,  especially  to  them  who 
are  of  the  household  of  faith."  And  what  day  is  more  season 
able  for  "  doing  well "  than  the  day  which  was  appointed  to  be  a 
blessing  to  man,  provided  we,  like  the  Saviour,  attend  to  its 
claims  on  us  personally,  and  do  not  unnecessarily  postpone  to  the 
Sabbath-day  what  may  and  ought  to  be  done  before  1 

The  law  of  the  Sabbath  requires  more  than  the  work  which  is 
limited  to  the  day  itself.  It  takes  in  all  our  time.  It  says, 
"  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work."  Not  that  we 
are  bound  to  spend  the  whole  six  days  in  secular  work.  Com 
mands  of  moderation,  of  regard  to  health,  and  of  daily  acts  of 
devotion  and  beneficence,  come  in  to  claim  their  share  of  attention, 
and  to  regulate  a  labour  which  becomes  criminal  and  injurious  by 
excess.1  The  importance  of  redeeming  time  in  general,  and  of 
diligence  in  all  our  business,  is  frequently  recognised  in  Scripture. 

1  Affirmativa  ligant  semper,  sed  non  ad  semper,  negativa  ligant  neuter  ct  ad 
•Mm*. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  333 

"  Be  thou  diligent  to  know  the  state  of  thy  flocks,  and  look  well 
to  thy  herds."  "  Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  business  1  he  shall 
stand  before  kings  ;  he  shall  not  stand  before  mean  men."  "  Even 
when  we  were  with  you,  this  we  commanded  you,  that  if  any  would 
not  work,  neither  should  he  eat."  And  besides  many  other  im 
portant  reasons  for  such  conduct,  it  is  necessary  to  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Sabbath.  The  more  diligent  and  regular  we  are  in  the 
business  of  the  preceding  week,  the  more  prepared  are  we  for  that 
day  :  prepared  in  having  all  despatched  in  such  time  as  not  to 
encroach  on  sacred  hours,  and  prepared  in  a  free  mind,  a  clear 
conscience,  and  in  that  full,  satisfactory  exertion  of  body  and  spirit 
in  the  matters  of  this  life,  which  stimulates  a  desire  for  a  holy 
rest.  "  He  that  is  not  faithful  in  his  calling,  will  never  care  to 
keep  the  Sabbath ;  and  he  that  keepeth  the  Sabbath,  will  be  dili 
gent  in  his  calling.  Those  two  are  like  the  two  cherubim  whose 
faces  looked  one  towards  another."1 

Nor  is  this  the  only  preparation  necessary  for  gaining  the  ob 
ject  of  the  Sabbath.  This  day  fits  us  for  the  work  of  the  others  ; 
but  the  others  do  not  so  much  fit  us  for  the  work  of  this.  An 
abridgment  of  the  labour  of  the  six  days,  while  necessary  to  the 
full  enjoyment  of  the  seventh  even  as  a  day  of  rest,  is  no  less 
essential  to  the  complete  attainment  of  its  end  as  a  day  of  holy 
service  and  happiness.  To  be  immersed  in  worldly  cares  and 
pleasures,  up  to  the  last  hour  of  Saturday,  is  incompatible  with  a 
right  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week.  In  like  manner,  if 
the  design  of  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  fully  answered,  we  must  not 
immediately  when  it  is  over  plunge  into  those  occupations  and 
pleasures  which  destroy  the  impressions,  and  prevent  the  benefit 
of  the  engagements  of  the  day. 

Another  important  duty  connected  with  the  Sabbath,  and  not 
confined  to  the  day,  is  our  promotion  of  its  observance  by  others. 
"  Thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daugh 
ter,  thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor 
thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates."  It  is  the  duty  of  doing 
good  in  this  particular  respect  to  our  neighbour  and  brother  \  it 
is  the  duty  of  "not-  suffering  sin."  the  sin  of  breaking  the  fourth 
commandment,  "  upon  our  neighbour." 

i  Weoiaes's  Works,  vol.  11.  p.  22S. 
15* 


334  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

In  concluding  this  exposition  of  Sabbatic  duties,  we  must  advert 
briefly  to  two  additional  topics. 

First,  It  is  only  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  that  we  can  be  safe, 
obedient,  or  happy  under  this  law.  By  the  law,  including  this  as 
well  as  other  precepts,  is  the  knowledge  of  sin.  The  apostle  says, 
without  excepting  the  fourth  commandment,  "  We  know  that  the 
law  is  spiritual,"  reaching  to  the  thoughts,  desires,  and  aims  of  the 
mind  equally  as  to  the  words  and  acts  of  the  life.  Tried  by  this  one 
statute,  who  is  not  convicted  by  it  of  sin  in  heart  and  in  conduct  ] 
But  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.  "  Cursed  is  every  one  that  con- 
tinueth  not  in  all  things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do 
them."  "  Christ  Jesus,"  however,  "  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners."  "  There  is  salvation  in  no  other."  "  By  him  all  that 
believe  are  justified."  And  not  until  we  are  united  to  Him  by 
faith,  pardoned  and  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  our  minds,  can  we 
have  any  pleasure  in  His  law  and  day ;  not  until  we  have  his 
grace  given  to  us  shall  we  be  disposed  to  keep  any  one  of  the 
Divine  commandments.  "  How  deeply  sensible,"  says  the  Rev. 
Henry  Venn,  referring  to  the  Sabbath,  "  should  we  be  of  our  own 
inability  to  observe  the  day  according  to  the  will  of  God."  Faith 
works  by  love,  and,  believing,  we  rejoice  with  unspeakable  joy ; 
love  to  the  person  and  law  of  Him  who  died  for  us  and  rose 
again  ;  joy  on  account  of  His  atonement,  resurrection,  and  glory, 
and  in  the  assurance  thereby  inspired  of  a  blessed  immortality.  This 
spirit  was  attainable  and  attained  in  ancient  times.  Bight-hearted 
men  calling  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honour 
able,  received  the  promise,  "  Then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in 
God ;"  and  seeing,  like  Abraham,  the  day  of  Christ,  the  day  of 
His  advent  and  reign,  afar  off,  were  glad  ;  or  beholding,  like  others, 
the  stone  which  the  builders  rejected  become  the  head  of  the  cor 
ner,  raised  these  notes  of  praise,  "  This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord 
hath  made  ;  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it." 

Second,  The  Sabbath  law  is  as  sacred  amidst  the  liberties  of 
Christianity  as  it  was  under  a  severer  economy,  and  enforced  by 
yet  more  impressive  sanctions.  That  its  circumstances  should  be 
different  was  to  be  expected.  They  were  not  the  same  after  the 
fall  as  they  had  been  in  Paradise,  and  they  changed  again  when 
the  seed  of  Abraham,  from  being  only  families  and  wanderers,  had 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  335 

become  a  settled  and  numerous  people.  The  Sabbath  could  no 
longer  be  a  type  when  the  things  shadowed  by  it  had  come.  It 
could  no  longer  be  sanctioned  by  a  penalty  of  temporal  death, 
because  Christianity  was  not  a  theocracy.  It  could  not  offer 
rewards  in  the  land  of  Palestine,  for  it  is  now  part  of  a  system,  of 
which  the  field  is  the  world.  As  time  had  made  progress,  and 
the  natural  had  been  succeeded  by  the  moral  creation — the  deliver 
ance  from  Egypt  followed  by  the  redemption  from  sin — it  could 
now  enter  into  relation  to  an  event  greater  than  even  those  of  all 
preceding  ages,  and  in  adaptation  to  this  event  might  be  trans 
ferred  from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, — to  the  day 
when  the  Redeemer  rose  from  the  dead,  and  entered  on  his  glorious 
rest.  None  of  these  changes  could  affect  the  nature  of  the  Sab 
bath  as  a  day  of  rest — a  day  of  holiness  and  service  to  the  Lord. 
As  the  sun  is  the  same  orb  that  shone  on  the  world  yet  unvisited 
by  sin  and  un  blasted  by  the  curse,  and  now  enlightens  it  as  a  re 
volted  and  blighted  province  of  the  universe — the  same  when 
rising  brightly  in  the  east,  then  enveloped  in  clouds,  and  then 
breaking  forth  in  all  its  glory — so  it  is. the  same  Sabbath  which 
has  cheered  mankind  in  their  conditions  of  original  purity  and 
subsequent  depravation,  and  which,  after  varied  fortunes,  is  now 
risen  to  its  highest  earthly  honour.  The  Sabbath,  like  the  sun, 
has  never  essentially  changed.  In  ancient  times,  as  really  as  now, 
it  was  a  delight,  and  combined  mercy  with  sanctity.  Now,  as 
well  as  then,  it  is  not  a  day  of  idleness,  or  worldly  business,  or 
worldly  pleasure.  Has  the  removal  of  its  penalty  of  death  made 
its  profanation  less  criminal  than  idolatry  and  disobedience  to 
parents,  which  also  no  longer  incur  the  forfeiture  of  the  offender's 
life  1  Is  redemption  less  holy  and  spiritual  a  subject  of  remem 
brance  than  creation  1  Because  we  are  brought  nearer  to  heaven, 
are  we  permitted  to  become  more  worldly — more  occupied  with 
amusements  and  vanities — less  obliged  to  meditate,  pray,  and  praise 
on  the  day  which  now  more  than  ever  borders  on  and  resembles 
the  days  of  eternity  1  This  would  be  to  say  that  God's  moral 
law  is  mutable ;  that  Christ  came  to  relax  it,  to  destroy  founda 
tions,  to  make  man  less  just  as  to  God's  time,  less  holy  in  his 
service,  and  therefore  less  happy.  What  saith  the  New  Testa 
ment  1  "  That  He  would  grant  unto  us,  that  we,  being  de- 


336  DUTIES  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

livered  out  of  the  hand  of  our  enemies,  might  serve  Him  with 
out  fear  in  holiness  and  righteousness  before  him  all  the  days 
of  our  life."  "  Wherefore,  receiving  a  kingdom  which  cannot  be 
moved,  let  us  have  grace  whereby  we  may  serve  God  acceptably, 
with  reverence  and  godly  fear  :  for  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire." 
He  is  a  consuming  fire — a  holy  God — and  His  jealousy  burns  still 
round  His  sanctuary  and  His  day.  "  For  this  cause,"  saith  the 
apostle,  referring  to  want  of  reverent  regard  to  a  Divine  institu 
tion,  "  many  are  weak  and  sickly  among  you,  and  many  sleep." 
"  Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  yourselves  together,  as  the 
manner  of  some  is.  For,  if  we  sin  wilfully  after  that  we  have 
received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more 
sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and 
fiery  indignation  which  shall  devour  the  adversaries." 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION  337 


OHAPTEK  VI 

DIVINE  ESTIMATE  OF  THE  IMPOKTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

"  And  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight ;  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honourable." 

THE  importance  of  the  Sabbath  has  been  very  fully  considered 
as  it  appears  in  the  light  of  Keason  and  Experience,  but  we  have 
still  to  view  the  subject  in  the  clearer  light  of  Revelation. 

First,  A  precedency  of  rank  has  been  accorded  to  the  Sabbatic 
institution  under  all  the  economies  of  religion.  It  appears  to  have 
been  the  earliest  provision  of  a  sacred  kind  made  for  the  benefit  of 
our  first  progenitors,  preceding,  even,  the  establishment  of  the  cove 
nant  of  life.  It  was,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  observes,  the  first  point  of 
religion  that  was  settled  after  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt.  It  had 
a  place  assigned  it,  not  only  in  the  Decalogue,  and  thus  above  all 
political  and  ceremonial  regulations,  but  in  the  first  table  of  the 
law,  which — summed  up  in  love  to  God,  "the  first  and  great 
commandment " — lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  morality,  and  trans 
gressions  of  which  are  more  aggravated  as  subversive  of  all  justice, 
order,  and  good  in  the  universe  ;  and  as  involving  a  more  imme 
diate  aggression  on  the  authority  and  person  of  the  Lawgiver1 — a 
ground  on  which  idolatry  and  the  desecration  of  sacred  time  are 
alike  forbidden.  Elevated  thus  highly  by  its  place  in  the  first 
table,  the  fourth  commandment  is  honourable  even  as  compared 
with  the  preceding  three,  not  merely  as  connecting  them  with 
those  of  the  second  table,  but  as  "  the  only  commandment,"  to 
use  the  words  of  Dr.  Winter  Hamilton,  "  that  affirmatively  and 
directly  requires  duty  to  God."  And  as  the  original  institution 
was  contemporaneous  with  the  completion  of  creation,  so  when  the 

1  1  Sam.  ii.  25. 


338  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

Saviour  rose  from  the  grave  He  by  this  act  at  once  proved  the  per 
fection  of  the  atonement,  and  reared  its  monument  in  a  day  con 
secrated  to  His  service. 

Second,  No  institution  has  been  more  frequently  promulgated 
than  the  Sabbath.  It  is  announced  at  the  Creation.  It  is  again 
stamped  with  the  Divine  authority  in  the  sight  of  assembled 
Israel  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin.  In  a  few  weeks  thereafter — and 
that  was  certainly  of  no  small  moment  which  must  so  soon  be 
repeated — we  hear  it  proclaimed  in  thunder  from  Sinai.  And 
once  more  does  it  come  forth  from  the  excellent  glory  with  altered 
day  and  name,  and  with  superadded  purpose  and  honour,  but  in 
all  its  substantial  import,  when  Christ  rests  after  a  consummated 
redemption.  This  frequency  of  formal  intimation  has  never  been 
accorded  to  any  other  statute  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  Was 
it  thus  cared  for  and  protected  as  being  a  chief  bulwark  of  reli 
gion,  and  yet  a  law  the  importance  of  which  was  not  so  obvious 
to  the  human  mind,  or  the  sacredness  of  which  was  peculiarly 
repugnant  to  the  human  heart  ?  Whatever  may  be  the  reason, 
certain  it  is  that  its  Author  has  taken  special  care  to  provide  the 
means  of  securing  to  Himself  the  glory  of  His  own  day,  and  to 
man  its  blessings. 

Third,  The  terms  of  legislation  in  reference  to  the  institution 
have  been  unusually  copious  and  explicit.  All  the  commandments 
are  expressed  with  a  Divine  comprehensiveness  and  perspicuity. 
But  the  fourth  has  some  remarkable  peculiarities.  It  is  the 
largest  and  fullest  of  them  all.  It  alone  is  prefaced  by  a  solemn 
memento.  Unlike  the  rest,  it  is  presented  in  two  forms,  first 
positively,  stating  what  we  are  to  do,  and  then  negatively,  stating 
what  we  are  not  to  do.  Unlike  all  but  the -tenth,  it  is  minute  in 
the  specification  of  the  persons  whom  it  concerns.  The  other 
precepts  are  not  so  enforced — most  of  them  containing  no  argu 
ments,  and  none  of  them  so  many  as  the  fourth.  No  law  could 
be  stated  more  unequivocally,  as  none  has  been  more  frequently 
set  forth.  For  all  this  particularity  there  was  occasion.  There 
is  nothing  that  man  feels  to  be  a  greater  restraint  on  his  sinful 
inclinations  than  a  day  devoted  to  God.  There  is  nothing  which 
he  is  more  ready  to  abuse  to  the  purposes  of  a  lawless  liberty  under 
the  pretence  of  its  grant  of  a  right  to  rest.  There  is  nothing 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  339 

which  has  been  more  assailed  and  mutilated  than  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath.  And  there  is  nothing  so  surely  detrimental  to  a  true 
religion  as  the  success  of  its  enemies  in  secularizing  throughout 
a  country,  and  wresting  from  men  the  day  which  has  been  pro 
vided  as  a  principal  means  of  guarding  Divine  truth,  and  advanc 
ing  human  piety. 

fourth,  The  Sabbath  has  been  honoured  by  its  relation  to  pecu 
liarly  important  facts.  The  Creation  was  a  great  event — great 
in  itself  as  the  work  of  Divine  wisdom,  goodness,  and  power — 
and  great  as  the  theatre  of  other  works  no  less  wondrous.  In 
honour  of  the  Deity  as  the  Author  of  this  mighty  work  was  the 
day  of  sacred  rest  appointed.  Had  man  not  sinned,  Creation 
would  have  been,  it  is  probable,  the  chief  means  of  declaring  the 
glory  of  the  Divinity.  In  his  fallen  state,  it  does  teach  him 
those  doctrines  of  the  Divine  existence  and  attributes  which  lie 
at  the  foundation  of  all  religion.  How  important  the  institution 
which  was  designed  and  fitted  to  be  to  innocent  man  a  perpetual 
remembrancer  of  his  Maker,  especially  as  a  regularly  recurring 
season  for  the  more  immediate  contemplation  of  His  perfections, 
and  which  is  equally  suited,  as,  from  the  want  of  all  evidence  of 
the  revoking  of  the  destination,  it  is  obviously  intended  to  answer 
the  same  purpose  to  man  guilty  and  depraved  !  In  the  present 
condition  of  human  beings,  who  dislike  to  "  retain  God  in  their 
knowledge,"  a  weekly  festival  with  religious  instruction,  is,  still 
more  than  it  was  in  their  first  estate,  needed  by  them,  that  the 
Creator  may  not  be  forgotten  in  these  His  own  dominions,  and  by 
us  His  own  offspring. 

There  is  another  event  of  extensive  and  abiding  importance — 
an  event  greater  than  the  Creation,  as  it  reveals  more  of  the 
character  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  secures  a  higher  and  more 
enduring,  even  an  eternal  happiness  to  man.  Compared  with 
Redemption,  all  other  works  are  unworthy  to  "  come  into  mind." 
To  this  completed  work  the  Lord's  day  has  been  indissolubly 
linked. 

Creation  and  Redemption  are  facts  wherein  Jehovah  is  seen  in 
His  full  glory,  and  which  it  is  most  of  all  things  for  man's  good 
to  know  and  remember.  What  a  sacred  and  benign  lustre  is 
thrown  over  the  Sabbath  by  its  association  with  such  facts  !  how 


34:0  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

important  the  institution  which  has  their  memory  intrusted  to 
its  keeping  !  With  what  reverence  and  interest  should  that  day 
be  regarded  which  brings  us  so  immediately  into  the  presence  of 
the  Almighty  and  the  All-merciful  ! 

Fifth,  The  manner  in  which  the  institution  has  been  appointed 
and  at  different  times  proclaimed,  is  no  less  significant  of  its 
peculiar  importance.  The  solemnities  of  Sinai  did  not  signalize 
the  law  of  the  Sabbath  more  than  the  other  nine  commandments} 
but  it  says  not  a  little  on  its  behalf  that  it  partook  equally  with 
the  others  of  the  awful  and  impressive  testimonies  which  that 
occasion  supplied  to  the  glory  of  the  moral  law.  But  there  were 
demonstrations  of  the  sacred  excellence  of  the  institution  which 
belonged  exclusively  to  itself.  "What  an  august  occasion  for  the 
expression  of  the  Divine  will  when  man  had  just  come  into  being, 
and  when  his  ears  were  saluted  with  the  voice  of  his  Maker  calling 
him  to  remember  his  Creator  on  the  first  day  of  his  youth,  while 
the  morning  stars  were  singing  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God 
were  shouting  for  joy  !  How  stupendous  the  work  which  had  just 
been  finished  !  How  noble  the  argument — Jehovah  is  resting 
from  His  work,  and  invites  thee  by  His  example  to  enter  into  His 
Divine  rest !  Then,  looking  forward  over  a  space  of  two  thousand 
and  five  hundred  years,  we  see  the  Author  of  the  Sabbath  not 
only  overcoming  the  evil  of  mistrustful  men  by  giving  them  food 
from  heaven,  but  glorifying  His  own  day  by  miraculous  works. 
Nor  was  this  the  wonder  of  a  day.  For  forty  years  the  uncor- 
rupted  manna  gathered  on  the  sixth  day  for  the  following  day's 
use,  and  the  preservation  of  the  portion  laid  up  beside  the  ark,  gave 
special  attestation  and  honour  to  the  Sabbatic  institution.  Let 
us  only  add,  that  the  manner  in  which  the  Lord's  day  was  intro 
duced,  though  more  in  accordance  with  a  kingdom  that  "  cometh 
not  with  observation,"  had  a  moral  sublimity  more  truly  august 
and  impressive  than  had  been  the  thunders  and  lightnings  of 
Sinai.  The  Lord  of  glory,  after  condescending  to  suffer  and  die 
for  men  (what  infinite  love  was  this  !)  stepped  from  the  tomb,  and 
sanctified  the  day  of  His  resurrection  to  be  the  Sabbath  of  Chris 
tianity,  and  a  monument  of  His  finished  redemption.  He  too,  as 
God  did,  rested  from  His  work — appropriated  the  day  as  His 
own — and  taught  us  by  His  example,  and  by  His  appearances  in 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  341 

the  midst  of  His  disciples,  that  there  still  remained  a  rest  to  the 
people  of  God. 

Sixth,  The  means  which  the  Author  of  the  Sabbath  still  more 
directly  employs  to  maintain  its  authority  and  to  enforce  its  ob 
servance,  demonstrate  its  eminent  sanctity  and  value. 

The  frequency  and  solemnity  of  His  commands  on  the  subject 
show  how  momentous  the  keeping  of  the  day  of  holy  rest  was  in 
the  view  of  God.  He  had  scarcely  uttered  His  charge  by  Moses 
to  Israel,  that  "  no  man  was  to  go  out  of  his  place  on  the  seventh 
day,"  when  He  pronounces  in  tones  of  thunder  the  law,  "  Re 
member  the  Sabbath-day,  to  keep  it  holy,"  which  is  soon  followed 
up  by  large  and  repeated  commands  to  the  same  effect  :  "  Verily 
my  Sabbaths  ye  shall  keep — ye  shall  keep  the  Sabbath,  therefore, 
for  it  is  holy  unto  you — ye  shall  keep  my  Sabbaths  and  reverence 
my  sanctuary — keep  the  Sabbath-day  to  sanctify  it,  as  the  Lord 
thy  God  hath  commanded  thee." 

He  remonstrates  and  complains,  as  well  as  enjoins.  "  How 
long  refuse  ye,"  were  his  words  to  Moses  at  the  descent  of  the 
manna,  "  to  keep  my  commandments  and  my  laws  f  "  Then  I 
contended  with  the  nobles  of  Judah,  and  said  unto  them,"  were 
the  words  of  Nehemiah  from  God,  "  What  evil  thing  is  this  that 
ye  do,  and  profane  the  Sabbath-day  ?  Did  not  your  fathers  thus, 
and  did  not  our  God  bring  all  this  evil  upon  us,  and  upon  this 
city  1  yet  ye  bring  more  wrath  upon  Israel  by  profaning  the  Sab 
bath."  "  Notwithstanding,  the  children  rebelled  against  me — they 
polluted  my  Sabbaths." 

He  appeals  to  the  dignity,  reasonableness,  and  value  of  the  in 
stitution.  It  is  the  holy  Sabbath — a  Sabbath  to  the  Lord — a 
delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honourable — the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  thy  God — the  Lord's  day.  It  is  one  day  in  seven.  "  See, 
for  that  the  Lord  hath  given  you  the  Sabbath."  "  Moreover  also 
I  gave  them  my  Sabbaths,  to  be  a  sign  between  me  and  them, 
that  they  might  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  that  sanctify  them — 
but  my  Sabbaths  they  greatly  polluted."  The  Son  of  man  is 
Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath. 

He  condescends,  to  vindicate  and  interpret  His  law.  He  does 
so  by  the  prophets.  He  does  so  especially  by  Jesus  Christ.  What 
clearer  evidence  could  have  been  given  of  the  Divine  regard  for 


342  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  institution  than  the  means  employed  to  free  it  from  the  addi 
tions  and  corruptions  by  which  man  had  disfigured  and  perverted 
the  simple  and  gracious  ordinance  of  heaven  ?  "  We  may  collect," 
says  Howe,  "  there  is  an  awful  regard  due  to  the  Sabbath-day. 
When  our  Lord  justifies  the  cure  now  wrought  on  their  Sabbath 
only  on  this  account,  that  it  was  an  act  of  mercy  toward  a  daughter 
of  Abraham  ;  by  the  exception  of  such  a  case  he  strengthens  the 
general  rule,  and  intimates  so  holy  a  day  should  not,  upon  light 
occasions,  be  otherwise  employed  than  for  the  proper  end  of  its 
appointment.  Though  our  day  be  not  the  same,  the  business  of 
it,  in  great  part,  is."1 

He  warns  by  words  of  threatening  and  acts  of  retribution.  The 
law  which  assigned  death  as  the  punishment  of  Sabbath-breaking 
was  obligatory  only  during  the  time  and  within  the  local  limits 
of  the  theocracy.  Nor  was  this  the  only  offence  which  incurred 
among  the  Jews  the  awful  penalty.  Adultery,  murder,  and  stub 
born  disobedience  to  parents  were  capital  crimes.  The  transgres 
sion  even  of  certain  ceremonial  requirements  involved  the  forfeiture 
of  life.  But,  while  this  punishment  of  the  Sabbath-breaker  teaches 
to  all  ages  and  places  the  lesson  that  his  sin  was  no  trifle,  there  is 
something  in  the  enactment  of  the  law  in  the  matter,  and  in  the 
only  recorded  instance  of  its  execution,  which  serves  to  impress 
our  minds  with  the  conviction  that  a  peculiar  enormity  attached 
to  the  infraction  of  the  fourth  commandment.  "  Ye  shall  keep 
the  Sabbath,  therefore,  for  it  is  holy  unto  you.  Every  one  that 
defileth  it  shall  be  put  to  death  ;  for  whosoever  doeth  any  work 
therein,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  his  people.  Six 
days  may  work  be  done  ;  but  in  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of 
rest,  holy  to  the  Lord,  whosoever  doeth  any  work  in  the  Sabbath- 
day,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."2  "And  while  the  children 
of  Israel  were  in  the  wilderness,  they  found  a  man  that  gathered 
sticks  upon  the  Sabbath-day.  And  they  that  found  him  gather 
ing  sticks  brought  him  unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  unto  all  the 
congregation.  And  they  put  him  in  ward,  because  it  was  not 
declared  what  should  be  done  to  him.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  The  man  shall  be  surely  put  to  death  :  all  the  congrega 
tion  shall  stone  him  with  stones  without  the  camp.  And  all  the 

1  On  Luke  xiii.  16,     WorTcs,  LontL  (1836),  p.  1010.  2  Ex.  xxxi.  14,  15. 


TESTIMONY  OF  KEVELATION.  343 

congregation  brought  him  without  the  camp,  and  stoned  him  with 
stones,  and  he  died  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses."1  Whether 
similar  cases  occurred  we  are  not  informed.  But  death  under  the 
direction  of  the  judicial  law  was  not  the  only  way  in  which  the 
punishment  of  offences  against  the  Sabbath  was  threatened  and 
visited.  That  law  contemplated,  with  the  remarkable  exception 
of  the  case  of  suspected  conjugal  infidelity,  only  overt  acts.  Israel, 
however,  were  under  other  laws,  which  took  cognizance  of  the 
heart,  and  of  many  actions  which,  though  not  amenable  to  the 
civil  jurisdiction,  subjected  offenders  to  the  Divine  displeasure, 
expressed  in  various  forms  of  calamity.  And  no  sin  appears  to 
have  called  forth  more  comminations  and  judgments  than  that  of 
contemning  sacred  institutions,  particularly  the  Sabbath.  Jehovah 
is  represented  as  lifting  up  his  hand  to  that  people  in  the  wil 
derness,  that  he  would  not  bring  them  into  the  land  which  he 
had  given  them,  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  which  is  the  glory 
of  all  lands,  because  they  despised  his  judgments,  and  walked  not 
in  his  statutes,  but  polluted  his  Sabbaths,  for  their  hearts  went 
after  their  idols.  This  determination  was  fulfilled  in  the  case  of 
many,  but  his  eye  spared  others,  so  that  he  did  not  make  an  end 
of  them  in  the  wilderness.  When,  after  renewing  his  covenant 
with  them,  and  charging  them  to  hallow  his  Sabbaths,  they  proved 
disobedient,  and  polluted  his  Sabbaths,  he  said  he  would  pour  out 
his  fury  upon  them  to  accomplish  his  anger  against  them  in  the 
wilderness  ;  but  withdrew  his  hand,  and  wrought  for  his  name's , 
sake  that  it  should  not  be  dishonoured  in  the  sight  of  the  heathen, 
in  whose  sight  he  had  brought  them  forth.  And  again,  he  lifted 
up  his  hand  in  the  wilderness,  that  he  would  scatter  them  among 
the  heathen  and  disperse  them  through  the  countries,  because  they 
had  not  executed  his  judgments,  but  had  despised  his  statutes, 
and  polluted  his  ^bbaths,  and  their  eyes  were  after  their  fathers' 
idols.  This  last  threatening,  which  had  been  uttered  in  the  days 
of  Moses,  had  begun  to  be  carried  into  effect  when  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  thus  recorded  it.  To  these  attestations  of  the  solemn 
importance  of  the  Sabbath,  let  us  add  another  from  the  Old  Tes 
tament  Scriptures.-  It  appears,  from  a  passage  in  the-  prophecies 
of  Jeremiah,  that  the  welfare  and  even  the  continued  existence  of 

i  Numb.  xv.  32-36. 


344  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  Jewish  State  were  suspended  on  the  observance  by  the  people 
of  that  institution ;  for  he  declares,  that  if  they  hallowed  it,  and 
did  no  work  therein,  the  nation  should  in  the  highest  measure 
prosper,  and  the  city  remain  for  ever,  but  that  if  they  would  not 
hearken  unto  God  to  hallow  the  Sabbath-day,  and  not  to  bear  a 
burden,  even  entering  in  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  on  the  Sabbath- 
day,  then  should  he  kindle  a  fire  in  the  gates  thereof,  which  should 
devour  the  palaces  of  Jerusalem,  and  not  be  quenched.  Although 
we  had  no  evidence  of  the  fulfilment  of  this  denunciation,  its  ut 
terance  might  suffice  to  convince  us  that  the  institution  must  have 
been  precious  in  God's  sight,  which  was  so  fenced  round  against 
its  foes  by  the  terrors  of  devouring  fire  and  of  national  ruin.  But 
the  words  of  the  prophet  were  verified  in  the  destruction  of  Jeru 
salem  by  the  Romans,  with  fire,  and  on  the  Sabbath-day. 

Nor  are  equally  solemn  proofs  of  the  Divine  respect  for  holy 
seasons  and  appointments  wanting  under  Christianity.  This  be- 
nignest  form  of  true  religion  wTas  introduced  with  "just  judgments 
on  wicked  men."  As  it  advanced,  the  abuse  of  a  Divine  insti 
tution  was  followed  by  sickness  and  death.  It  was  to  avowed 
Christians  that  the  warning  was  addressed  :  "  Not  forsaking  the 
assembling  of  yourselves  together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is ;  but 
exhorting  one  another  ;  and  so  much  the  more  as  ye  see  the  day 
approaching.  For  if  we  sin  wilfully  after  that  we  have  received 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for 
sins,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indig 
nation,  which  shall  devour  the  adversaries.  He  that  despised 
Moses'  law  died  without  mercy  under  two  or  three  witnesses  ;  of 
how  much  sorer  punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  be  thought 
worthy,  who  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath 
counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  he  was  sanctified, 
an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  despite  unto  tft  Spirit  of  grace  ? 
It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God."1 
These  dread  words  proclaim  that  Christianity  has  its  penalties  no 
less  than  had  Judaism — penalties  the  more  fatal  that  they  are 
spiritual  and  lasting  ;  that  "  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire,"  who 
will  be  sanctified  in  "them  that  come  nigh"  him,  as  certainly  as 
vhen  for  oifering  strange  fire  the  sons  of  Aaron  "  died  before  the 

i  Het.  x.  25-31. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  346 

Lord,"  or  when  he  swore  by  his  excellency  that  he  would  not 
forget  their  works  who  in  the  time  of  Amos  wearied  of  his  Sab 
bath,  but  would  send  them  a  famine  of  his  word,  with  other  cala 
mities  ;  and  that  he  is  as  resolved  to  assert  the  claims  of  his 
forsaken  institutions  and  assemblies  now  as  when  the  un  circum 
cised  were  doomed  to  excision  from  their  people.  It  is  extremely 
wicked  for  poor  mortals  to  judge  their  fellow-men,  to  deal  out 
disaster  according  to  their  own  views  and  passions,  and  not  to 
unite  charity  and  mercy  towards  others  with  severity  against 
their  own  misdeeds.  But  it  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  a  base 
betrayal  of  truth,  and  a  cowardly  shrinking  from  duty,  to  evade 
the  perception  and  avowal  that  peculiar  retributions  are  in  our 
own  day  awarded  to  the  profaners  of  the  Sabbath.  It  must  be 
so,  unless  God  has  ceased  to  rule  the  world,  and  to  maintain  the 
authority  of  his  law.  It  is  so,  for  although  there  is  no  death  by 
the  laws  of  nations  to  such  men,  they  themselves,  in  untold  num 
bers,  have  confessed  that  their  sin  has  found  them  out,  and  brought 
them  to  this  doom.  It  is  so,  for  although  no  voice  from  heaven 
says  to  particular  classes  or  individuals  as  to  the  Jews,  "  I  will  visit 
you  with  this  or  that  penalty  for  contempt  of  my  day  ; "  or,  after 
the  infliction,  "  This  was  owing  to  your  profanation  of  the  Sab 
bath,"  yet  the  principles  of  the  Divine  government  remain  the 
same — the  Divine  menaces  against  the  offence  are  still  on  record 
— the  same  causes  produce  their  wonted  effects — the  practice 
abounds,  and  two  classes  of  facts  are  manifest — the  one,  calamit 
ous  events  which  point  as  with  the  finger  to  their  guilty  cause  ; 
the  other,  those  natural  consequences  of  the  sin — the  increased 
irreligion,  the  immorality,  the  abbreviated  life,  and  other  evils 
which  ifc  requires  a  considerable  portion  of  this  volume  to  present 
even  in  an  imperfect  outline,  and  which  have  there  been  proved 
to  prevail  to  a  large  extent  in  the  measure  of  a  personal,  domestic, 
and  national  disregard  for  the  Sabbatic  institution.  And  let  it 
not  be  presumed,  because  no  injury  seems  to  attend  such  a  course 
in  the  present  state,  that  the  Divine  word,  and  the  evidence  for 
the  importance  of  the  institution,  have  in  any  degree  failed.  For 
there  is  reserved  a  perfect  retribution  to  individuals  in  a  future 
world,  and  the  words  lately  cited  direct  our  thoughts  to  a  con 
summation  of  punishment  there,  which  completes  the  proof  from 


846  IMPOKTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

the  penal  sanctions  of  the  Sabbath,  that  no  "  common  thing"  is 
trampled  upon,  and  no  venial  fault  committed,  when  men  forsake 
the  assembling  of  themselves  together  on  the  day,  and  for  the 
worship,  of  the  Almighty. 

But  the  Sabbath  is  recommended  by  promises  of  good  as  well 
as  guarded  by  penalties.  Its  Author,  at  its  original  institution, 
pronounced  on  it  a  benediction  which  He  has  never  recalled,  but 
again  and  again  renewed.  This  benediction  was  repeated  in  the 
most  impressive  manner  from  Sinai.  And  prophets  were  com 
missioned  to  unfold  the  boon.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  by  Isaiah, 
"  Keep  ye  judgment,  and  do  justice  :  for  my  salvation  is  near  to 
come,  and  my  righteousness  to  be  revealed.  Blessed  is  the  man 
that  doeth  this,  and  the  son  of  man  that  layeth  hold  on  it ;  that 
keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it,  and  keepeth  his  hand  from 
doing  any  evil.  Neither  let  the  son  of  the  stranger,  that  hath 
joined  himself  to  the  Lord,  speak,  saying,  The  Lord  hath  utterly 
separated  me  from  his  people  :  neither  let  the  eunuch  say,  Behold 
I  am  a  dry  tree.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  the  eunuchs  that 
keep  my  Sabbaths,  and  choose  the  things  that  please  me,  and  take 
hold  of  my  covenant ;  even  unto  them  will  I  give  in  mine  house, 
and  within  my  walls,  a  place  and  a  name  better  than  of  sons 
and  of  daughters  :  I  will  give  them  an  everlasting  name,  that 
shall  not  be  cut  off.  Also  the  sons  of  the  stranger,  that  join 
themselves  to  the  Lord,  to  serve  him,  and  to  love  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  to  be  his  servants,  every  one  that  keepeth  the  Sabbath 
from  polluting  it,  and  taketh  hold  of  my  covenant  ;  even  them 
will  I  bring  to  my  holy  mountain,  and  make  them  joyful  in  my 
house  of  prayer  :  their  burnt-offerings  and  their  sacrifices  shall  be 
accepted  upon  mine  altar  ;  for  mine  house  shall  be  called  an  house 
of  prayer  for  all  people."1  The  same  prophet  is  directed  to  de 
scribe  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the  happiness  and  honour 
which  the  performance  of  them  insures,  in  these  remarkable 
terms  :  "  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the  Sabbath,  from 
doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy  day ;  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  de 
light,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honourable  ;  and  shalt  honour  him,  not 
doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  rinding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speak 
ing  thine  own  words  :  Then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the 

i  Isaiah  Ivi.  1-7. 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  347 

Lord ;  and  I  will  cause  thee  to  riae  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
earth,  and  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father  :  for 
the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it."1  Similar  is  the  testimony 
of  the  prophet  Jeremiah :  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  ye  dili 
gently  hearken  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord,  to  bring  in  no  burden 
through  the  gates  of  this  city  on  the  Sabbath-day,  but  hallow  the 
Sabbath-day,  to  do  no  work  therein  ;  then  shall  there  enter  into 
the  gates  of  this  city  kings  and  princes  sitting  upon  the  throne  of 
David,  riding  in  chariots  and  on  horses,  they,  and  their  princes, 
the  men  of  Judah,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  this 
city  shall  remain  for  ever.  And  they  shall  come  from  the  cities 
of  Judah,  and  from  the  places  about  Jerusalem,  and  from  the  land 
of  Benjamin,  and  from  the  plain,  and  from  the  mountains,  and 
from  the  south,  bringing  burnt-offerings,  and  sacrifices,  and  meat 
offerings,  and  incense,  and  bringing  sacrifices  of  praise,  unto  the 
house  of  the  Lord."2  And  judging  from  such  promises,  made 
to  individuals  and  to  classes — to  Gentiles  and  Jews— the  following 
character  of  the  most  glorious  era  in  the  history  of  this  earth  is 
to  be  viewed  as  not  the  least  of  the  causes  of  that  glory  :  "  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from  one  Sabbath  to  another,  shall  all 
flesh  come  to  worship  before  me,  saith  the  Lord."3 

Finally,  The  Sabbath  is  distinguished  by  its  antiquity  and 
duration. 

It  is  nearly  as  old  as  the  creation.  On  the  sixth  day  of  time 
that  work  was  completed,  and  its  Author  stamped  the  following 
day  with  his  signature,  in  perpetual  memory  of  Himself  as  the 
Being  by  whose  underived  wisdom  the  vast  undertaking  was  de 
vised — by  whose  uncaused  power  it  was  achieved.  Adam  awoke 
from  his  first  sleep  to  behold  the  light  of  the  earliest  Sabbath-day. 
Almost  contemporaneous  with  the  appointment  of  marriage,  it 
might  be  said  of  the  corrupters  of  the  one  as  it  was  to  the  per- 
verters  of  the  other,  "From  the  beginning  it  was  not  so."  Age, 
indeed,  does  not  consecrate  evil  or  magnify  a  trifle,  but  it  imparts 
interest  to  what  is  innocent,  and  venerableness  to  what  is  great 
and  good.  We  are  commanded  to  ask  for  the  old  paths  ;  and 
where  shall  we  find- older  paths  than  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  way  of  salvation  through  the  seed  of  the  woman  1  The  hoary 

i  Isaiah  Iviii.  13,  14.  *  Jer.  xvii.  24-26.  *  Isaiah  Ixvi   23 


348  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

head  is  a  crown  of  glory  when  found  in  the  way  of  righteousness. 
Our  Magna  Charta  is  an  ancient  guarantee  of  civil  rights,  but. 
neither  in  antiquity,  nor  in  its  own  nature  and  extent,  can  it  for 
a  moment  vie  with  the  world-old  and  world-wide  charter  of  a  free 
seventh  day,  which  the  Creator  hath  given  to  the  human  race  for 
all  time.  How  many  changes  and  catastrophes  has  it  survived  ! 
Kingdoms  have,  in  multiplied  instances,  risen  and  fallen.  Systems 
<of  opinion  on  all  subjects  have  succeeded  each  other  in  constant 
succession.  The  institutions  of  man  have  perished  one  after 
another.  Keligious  ordinances  themselves  have  fulfilled  their 
temporary  destinies  and  disappeared.  But  the  Sabbath,  like  the 
perpetual  hills,  has  outlasted  the  patriarchal  altars,  witnessed  the 
decay  of  all  other  sacred  monuments,  survived  the  tabernacle, 
temples,  and  sacrifices  of  a  gorgeous  ritual,  and,  after  the  various 
fortunes  of  eighteen  Christian  centuries,  is  still  as  full  of  vitality 
and  vigour  as  at  any  former  period  of  its  history.  And  we  have 
reason  to  believe  that,  like  the  ordinances  of  heaven,  it  will  live 
through  all  the  ages  of  time.  Nor  will  it  end  when  the  sun  has 
ceased  to  run  its  course.  Then,  indeed,  it  will  no  more  bless  the 
men  who  shall  be  found  to  have  preferred  death  to  life — a  lawless 
freedom  to  a  holy  rest.  But  there  will  "  remain  a  rest  to  the 
people  of  God,"  and  for  them  the  Sabbath  will  begin  a  brighter 
career,  as  the  one  day — the  unchanging  holy  day  of  eternity. 


TFSTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  349 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

THE  SABBATISM  OF  HEAVEN. 
•*  There  reinaineth  therefore  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God." 

IN  the  preceding  part  of  this  volume,  the  Sabbath  has  been 
considered  as  a  law  and  ordinance  belonging  to  the  present  state. 
It  is  solely  in  this  point  of  view  that  writers  for  the  most  part  re 
gard  it.  The  Sabbatism  of  a  future  world,  however,  is  a  doctrine 
which  is  not  only  favoured  by  the  analogy  of  the  Divine  procedure 
hitherto,  but  revealed  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

First,  we  have  the  doctrine  announced  in  the  words  of  our 
motto,  which  occur  in  Heb.  iv.  9.  In  this  chapter,  according  to 
the  learned  and  profound  Owen,  three  periods,  with  three  great 
works,  having  each  its  Divine  rest  and  its  memorial  day  for  men, 
are  mentioned.  The  first  is  the  time  when  the  Almighty  finished 
His  work  of  creation,  rested  and  was  refreshed,  and  sanctified  and 
blessed  the  seventh  day.  The  second  is  the  period  when  He  re 
deemed  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egyptian  bondage.  Of  this 
work  it  is  said  :  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  that  divided  the  sea, 
whose  waters  roared  :  the  Lord  of  Hosts  is  his  name.  And  I 
have  put  my  words  in  thy  mouth,  and  I  have  covered  thee  in  the 
shadow  of  mine  hand,  that  I  may  plant  the  heavens  and  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  earth,  and  say  unto  Zion,  Thou  art  my  people " 
(Isa.  li.  15,  16).  On  that  occasion,  too,  Jehovah  rested,  saying, 
"  This  is  my  rest,  and  here  will  I  dwell,"  and  though  some  of 
those  who  were  invited  to  enter  into  His  rest,  fell  short  of  it  and 
died  in  the  wilderness,  others  participated  in  the  Divine  blessing, 
enjoying  the  inheritance  of  the  promised  land.  The  day  selected  for 
the  celebration  of  the  rest  of  God  in  this  case  was  the  old  seventh 
day.  "  The  time  for  the  change  of  the  day  was  not  yet  come,  for 
this  work  was  but  preparatory  for  a  greater."  The  third  period 

16 


350  THE  SABBATH  IN  HEAVEN. 

was  coincident  with  the  accomplishment  by  Jesus  Christ  of  human 
redemption.  The  work  itself,  the  rest  of  the  Saviour,  and  the 
consequent  resting- day  for  men,  are  all  expressed  in  these  words  : 
"  There  remaineth  therefore  a  rest " — the  keeping  of  a  Sabbath — 
"  to  the  people  of  God.  For  he  that  is  entered  into  his  rest,  he 
also  hath  ceased  from  his  own  works,  as  God  did  from  his."  The 
rest  into  which  the  Redeemer  entered  was  not  His  lying  in  the 
grave,  for  this  was  part  of  his  humiliation  and  subjection  to  'the 
curse  of  the  law,  but  His  rising  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day, 
for  then  He  began  to  rest  from  His  labours,  and  to  receive  the  re 
ward  of  His  work — and  that  third  day — the  first  day  of  the  week 
— fitly  became  the  day  of  celebration  in  His  kingdom.  But  this  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven — the  kingdom  not  only  of  grace,  but  of 
glory — an  everlasting  kingdom.  And  "  there  remaineth  there 
fore  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God" — a  Sabbatisni  suited  not  only  to 
the  church  on  earth,  but  to  the  church  in  heaven. 

Accordingly,  second,  the  happiness  of  a  future  state,  as  unfolded 
in  the  Word  of  God,  includes  the  great  elements  of  a  Sabbath 
day. 

Best  is  one  of  these  elements.  At  death  the  spirits  of  the 
just  "  rest  from  their  labours" — they  "  enter  into  peace."  But 
the  rest  of  a  spirit  can  neither  on  earth  nor  in  heaven  be  in 
action.  It  is,  in  the  case  of  a  holy  being,  rest,  as  opposed  not  to 
activity,  but  to  hurry,  distraction,  toil,  uneasiness.  There  is 
accordingly  service — the  immediate  service  of  God — as  well  as 
rest.  "His  servants  shall  serve  him."  They  "rest  not  day 
and  night,  saying,  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,  which 
was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come."  There  is  the  commemoration  of 
the  same  works  as  on  earth.  Creation  is  celebrated.  "  The 
four-and-twenty  elders  fall  down  before  him  that  sat  on  the 
throne,  and  worship  him  that  liveth  for  ever  and  ever,  and  cast 
their  crowns  before  the  throne,  saying,  Thou  art  worthy,  0  Lord, 
to  receive  glory,  and  honour,  and  power  ;  for  thou  hast  created 
all  things,  and  for  thy  pleasure  they  are,  and  were  created." 
Redemption  is  eminently  the  subject  of  remembrance  and  praise. 
"  The  four  living  creatures  and  four-and-twenty  elders  fell  down 
before  the  Lamb,  having  every  one  of  them  harps  and  golden 
vials  full  of  odours,  which  are  the  prayers  of  saints.  And  they 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  351 

sung  a  new  song,  saying,  Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book,  and 
to  open  the  seals  thereof :  for  tliou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed 
us  to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and 
people,  and  nation  ;  and  hast  made  us  unto  our  God  kings  and 
priests  :  and  we  shall  reign  on  the  earth."  One  great  end  of  a 
day  of  rest  is  to  afford  the  means  of  public  worship.  Such  is  the 
worship  which  everywhere  pervades  the  record  of  celestial  occu 
pations.  The  leisure  of  the  weekly  holy  day  was  designed  also 
to  enable  us  to  receive  religious  instruction,  and  to  engage  in 
sacred  studies.  And  in  another  world  there  appears  to  be  re 
quired  the  opportunity  of  a  perpetual  Sabbath  for  the  same  ob 
ject.  It  seems  impossible  to  bring  a  created  being  to  a  state  of 
perfection  in  knowledge  at  which  it  could  be  said  that  further  he 
could  not  advance.  It  seems  necessary  to  the  very  nature  of  a 
rational  creature  to  grow,  whether  it  be  in  good  or  in  evil.  God 
alone  is  unchangeably  and  absolutely  perfect  in  intelligence.  The 
angels,  who  have  ever  beheld  the  face  of  God,  are  still  learners. 
It  was  the  one  desire  of  a  good  man  to  dwell  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord  all  the  days  of  his  life,  that  he  might  behold  His  beauty 
and  inquire  in  His  temple.  His  confident  hope  was  thus  ex 
pressed,  "  As  for  me,  I  will  behold  thy  face  in  righteousness  :  1 
shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake,  with  thy  likeness."  And  one 
object  of  the  Saviour's  desire  that  His  followers  might  be  with 
Him  in  heaven  was,  that  they  might  behold  His  glory.  If  when 
they  behold  in  a  glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord  they  are  changed  into 
His  image  from  glory  to  glory,  much  more  when  they  see  no 
longer  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  face  to  face.  His  servants 
shall  serve  Him,  and  they  shall  see  His  face.  The  performance 
of  benevolent  acts  is  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  day  of  rest,  and 
is  even  enjoined  in  Scripture  (1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  2).  The  law  of  earth, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,"  is  also  the  law  of 
heaven.  Charity  or  love  is  greater  than  either  faith  or  hope,  and 
never  faileth.  And  in  the  heavenly  state  it  must  express  itself, 
though  not  in  reproof,  or  in  words  of  condolence,  or  in  acts  of  relief, 
yet  in  the  benignant  eye,  in  the  affectionate  voice,  in  the  animating 
song,  in  the  communication  of  intelligence,  in  offices  of  kindness 
and  friendship.  The  penitence  of  a  sinner,  the  conversion  of  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  into  the  kingdoms  of  Christ,  the  casting 


352  THE  SABBATH  IN  HEAVEN. 

out  of  the  great  dragon,  that  old  serpent,  called  the  Devil  and 
Satan,  and  the  destruction  of  Babylon,  are  represented  in  the 
sacred  volume  as  spreading  joy  and  inspiring  songs  of  praise 
among  the  inhabitants  of  heaven.  The  seraphim  do  not  indulge 
solitary  and  selfish  joys,  but  cry  one  to  another,  Holy,  holy,  holy 
is  the  Lord  of  hosts  :  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory.  And 
in  the  same  spirit  the  nations  of  them  that  are  saved  rejoice  in  a 
common  salvation,  and  above  all  things,  rejoice  in  the  highness 
of  their  Lord  and  Saviour.  The  Sabbath-day  on  earth  is  a 
time  consecrated  entirely  to  God,  and  such,  as  appears  from  words 
already  cited,  is  the  Sabbath  of  heaven.  And  as  there  is  one 
service  in  particular  in  which  Christians  feel  themselves  on  the 
Lord's  day  to  be  brought  to  the  gate  of  heaven,  we  find  that  if 
one  thing  more  than  another  is  the  distinction  of  the  engage 
ments  and  happiness  of  eternity,  it  is  the  celebration  of  the  de 
cease  which  was  accomplished  at  Jerusalem. 

Third,  the  Sabbath  remaining  substantially  unchanged,  at 
tains  its  highest  honours  in  the  world  above.  There  it  must  in 
all  time  have  been  known  and  prized  as  an  instrument  of  good 
on  earth,  but  its  value  in  this  aspect  will  then  only  be  fully  seen 
when  its  services,  as  a  means  of  bringing  many  sons  to  glory,  have 
been  completed.  When  a  building  has  been  finished,  the  scaffold 
ing  is  taken  down  and  forgotten.  It  is  not  so  when  the  cope- 
stone  is  laid  on  the  house  of  God.  The  great  means  of  its  erec 
tion  was  the  obedience  unto  death  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  this,  we 
find,  divides  the  interest  and  the  praise  of  heaven  with  the  agency 
of  Him  who  sitteth  upon  the  throne  (Rev.  vii.  10).  Even  crea 
tures  themselves,  although  only  serviceable  as  they  have  re 
ceived  grace  and  blessing  from  the  Divine  Saviour,  are  acknow 
ledged  and  rewarded  as  the  instruments  of  turning  many  to 
righteousness.  And  the  Sabbath,  too,  receives  an  honour  which  is 
not  conferred  on  merely  positive  institutions,  inasmuch  as  it  is  re 
ceived  into  the  economy  of  heaven — the  service  of  eternity.  The 
Sabbatic  good  to  which  Dr.  Croly  in  the  following  sentence  refers, 
may  be  expected  to  be  in  a  large  measure  attained  in  a  golden 
age  awaiting  the  earth,  but  its  perfect  realization  is  reserved  for 
the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  :  "  As  the  full  possession 
of  providential  blessings  is  given  only  to  the  completeness  of 


TESTIMONY  OF  KEVELATION.  353 

human  obedience,  it  is  probable  that  neither  the  natural  results 
nor  the  full  knowledge  of  the  Sabbath  have  ever  yet  been  en 
joyed  by  the  fallen  race  of  mankind."1 

In  the  glorious  rest  of  the  Saviour,  the  people  of  God  partici 
pate  when  they  sit  down  with  Him  on  his  throne.  Let  these 
words  suffice  to  describe  their  condition  :  "  God  shall  wipe  away 
all  tears  from  their  eyes  ;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow,  nor  crying  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  : 
for  the  former  things  are  passed  away.  There  shall  be  no  more 
curse.  There  shall  be  no  night  there  ;  and  they  need  no  candle, 
neither  light  of  the  sun ;  for  the  Lord  God  giveth  them  light : 
and  they  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever  "  (Rev.  xxi.  4  ;  xxii.  3,  5). 

Their  worship  is  perfect.  They  are  without  fault.  "These 
are  they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed 
their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  serve  him  day 
and  night  in  his  temple  :  and  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall 
dwell  among  them"  (Rev.  vii.  14,  15).  It  has  been  said  that 
praise  on  earth  is  the  chief  emblem  of  the  occupations  of  eternity. 
"  All  that  we  know  o'  the  saints  above, 

Is  that  they  sing  and  that  they  love."    ' 

Reading,  preaching,  prayer  in  some  of  its  parts,  and  certain  other 
-forms  of  devotion,  are  superseded,  but  praise  remains — that  dis 
interested,  delightful  employment  of  the  angels,  and  of  every  man 
who  has  had  the  enmity  and  selfishness  of  his  heart  thawed  by  the 
Divine  grace  and  love,  and  been  formed  in  this  way  to  show  forth 
God's  praise.  "  The  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and  come 
to  Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads."  The 
following  incident  gives  some  idea  of  what  praise  should  be  : — A 
prayer-meeting  iu  the  south  of  Scotland  was  scattered  by  perse 
cution,  which  consigned  some  to  the  horrors  of  Dunnottar  Castle, 
and  banished  others  to  foreign  parts.  At  the  Revolution,  the 
survivors  re-assembled  for  prayer,  and  began  the  devotions  of  the 
evening  with  the  Psalm — 

"  Had  not  the  Lord  been  on  our  side, 
May  Israel  now  say ; 
Had  not  the  Lord  been  on  our  side, 
When  men  rose  us  to  slay  ; 
i  Divine  Origin  and  Obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  p.  8. 
Z 


354  THE  SABBATH  IN  HEAVEN. 

They  had  us  swallowed  quick,  when  as 
Their  wrath  'gainst  us  did  flame  : 
Waters  had  covered  us,  our  soul 
Had  sunk  beneath  the  stream." 

A  person  who  was  present  on  that  occasion,  a  relation  of  my 
informant,  declared,  "  Such  singing  I  never  heard  before,  and 
expect  never  to  hear  again  till  I  get  to  heaven."  Praise  must 
have  been  a  chief  part  of  the  devotion  of  Paradise,  and  would,  we 
may  conceive,  have  been  the  employment  of  unfallen  men  for 
ever.  But  how  superior  the  praises  of  a  countless  host  to  those 
of  Eden,  and  how  has  redemption,  with,  its  superadded  themes,  its 
new  songs,  and,  we  may  add,  the  higher  tone  of  sentiment  which 
it  has  inspired,  improved  the  melody !  The  account  of  the  univer 
sal  anthem  (Rev.  v.  9-14)  is  unspeakably  sublime ;  but  for  a  still 
nobler  swell  of  praise  we  must  look  forward  to  the  day  of  complete 
redemption.  Who  would  not  desire  to  hear  that  music  1  rather — 
for  to  hear  it  from  hell  would  but  add  to  our  misery — who  would 
not  wish  to  "  bear  some  humble  part  in  that  immortal  song  ? " 

Heaven's  commemoration  of  great  events  is  all  that  God  would 
have  it  to  be.  Here  material  objects  are  employed  and  are 
necessary  to  conduct  our  thoughts  and  feelings  to  the  Unseen,  and 
to  preserve  the  remembrance  of  redemption.  Bread  and  wine 
must  be  used.  And  these  emblems  are  few,  simple,  and  expressive. 
But  there  is  no  need  of  such  things  in  a  spiritual  temple,  where 
God  is  seen  face  to  face,  where  stands  "  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been 
slain,"  and  where  the  perfected  understanding,  memory,  and  heart 
are  delightfully  and  exclusively  devoted  to  the  highest  subjects. 
The  glass  is  unnecessary  when  we  clearly  see  the  object — the 
streams  are  superseded  when  we  are  at  the  fountain.  How  undis- 
tracted,  spiritual,  and  pure  must  be  the  devotions  and  celebrations 
of  heaven,  when  perfect  minds  will  be  directly  employed  on  Divine 
and  eternal  things ! 

The  investigation  of  truth  is  not  peculiar  to  the  final  condition 
of  "  the  people  of  God,"  but  it  is  then  conducted  under  the  best 
auspices*  The  first  man  had  the  garden  to  keep  and  dress,  and 
was  thus  prevented  from  devoting  himself  entirely  to  the  contem 
plation  of  spiritual  objects.  He  had  not  God  as  the  object  of 
direct  vision,  or  Christ  as  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine 


TESTIMONY  OP  REVELATION.  355 

perfections  to  behold,  or  the  whole  universe  to  study,  or  the  im 
mediate  teaching  of  Him  who  is  the  Light  of  the  world.  The  re 
deemed,  again,  had  on  earth  many  disadvantages  for  inquiry,  in  an 
encumbering  body,  which  required  so  much  attention,  and  by  its 
frailty  and  cares  interrupted  the  exercises  of  the  mind — in  evil 
propensities,  which  diverted  the  spirit  from  its  proper  engagements, 
and  darkened  its  views — in  the  many  surrounding  things  which 
often  unprofitably  occupied  the  time — and  in  a  thousand  avocations 
which  exhausted  the  strength  without  having  any  connexion  with 
the  improvement  of  the  intellectual  faculties.  The  spirits  of  the 
just  themselves  are  inferior  in  this  matter  to  those  who  after  the 
resurrection  inhabit  the  heavenly  world,  in  not  having  the  glori 
fied  organs  of  sense  by  which  to  communicate  with  their  appro 
priate  objects,  and  in  having  neither  the  completed  mystery  of 
God,  nor  the  full  assembly  of  holy  beings  to  call  forth  and  sustain 
their  noblest  energies.  From  all  this  we  may  see  how  abundant 
are  the  advantages  which  men  who  are  delivered  in  soul  and  body 
from  all  evil  must  have  for  prosecuting  the  search  of  truth  in  the 
eternal  world.  And  how  superior  their  pursuits  to  all  others, 
even  to  many  that  were  laudable  and  necessary  in  this  life  !  They 
themselves  were  in  many  instances,  through  their  connexion  with 
the  earth,  and  from  an  impaired  bodily  constitution,  subjected  to 
employments  which  are  not  congenial  to  the  high  faculties  and 
sanctified  desires  of  the  mind.  Much  of  their  time  and  strength 
was  expended  on  the  body,  on  the  acquisition  of  food  and  raiment, 
health  and  perishing  objects — engagements  which,  though  neces 
sary,  and  when  properly  attended  to  profitable  to  men,  and 
honouring  to  God,  are  yet  peculiar  to  a  state  of  things  induced  by 
sin,  and  are  not  in  themselves  worthy  of  the  origin  and  capacities 
of  a  spiritual  and  immortal  being.  But  now  they  rest  from  all 
such  labours,  and  are  entirely  occupied  with  services  suited  to  their 
powers  and  characters — services  such  as  angels  engage  in,  and 
tending  to  bring  them  near  to  God,  as  well  as  to  assimilate  their 
nature  to  His.  The  pursuits  of  the  philosopher  are  despised  by 
the  ignorant,  and  by  the  men  who  place  all  value  in  houses  and 
lands,  trade  and  money.  But  as  mind  is  more  excellent  than 
matter,  and  as  it  is  from  the  former  that  all  other  things  receive 
direction,  improvement,  and  importance,  so  are  the  labours  of  the 


356  THE  SABBATH  IN  HEAVEN. 

philosopher  worthy  and  useful  above  those  of  the  merchant,  Img- 
baudman,  and  mechanic.  Still  higher  in  the  scale  are  the  studies 
and  aims  of  the  man  of  God.  So  thought  David  when  he  longed 
to  appear  before  God,  preferred  a  day  in  His  courts  to  a  thousand, 
and  would  have  rejoiced,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  to  spend 
all  the  days  of  his  life  in  the  house  of  God,  beholding  His  beauty 
and  inquiring  in  His  temple.  So  judged  the  apostle  Paul,  who 
counted  everything  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  his  Lord.  So  decided  the  Son  of  God  when  He 
showed  His  preference  of  Mary's  devout  attention  to  His  instruc 
tions  above  Martha's  bustling  care  about  His  personal  comfort, 
and  pronounced  the  object  of  Mary's  choice  to  be  the  good  part — 
the  one  thing  needful.  And  from  the  brief  but  pregnant  notices 
furnished  in  the  Scriptures  respecting  the  studies  and  tastes  of 
holy,  happy  angels,  and  glorified  men,  we  find  their  spirit  to  be 
in  unison  with  that  of  David,  that  of  Paul,  and  that  of  their  Lord 
— in  other  words,  that  they  have'none  in  heaven  but  God,  that 
there  is  none  upon  earth  that  they  desire  beside  Him,  that  He  is 
their  portion  for  ever,  and  that  whether  they  study,  converse,  or 
sing,  or  whatsoever  they  do,  they  do  all  to  His  glory. 

The  holiness  and  benevolence  of  heaven  are  of  the  most  exalted 
drder.  The  Sabbath  is  "  the  holy  of  the  Lord" — a  day  which  is 
to  be  kept  holy — on  which  we  are  required  to  honour  Him,  not 
doing  our  own  ways,  or  finding  our  own  pleasure,  or  speaking  our 
own  words,  a  day  for  the  exercise  of  loving- kindness,  and  to  be 
called  a  delight.  In  heaven,  -the  day  is  sacredly  observed  by  the 
inhabitants.  They  are  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  all  the  day  long.  How 
deep  were  their  reverence  of  Him  and  their  humility  even  on  earth 
— Isaiah  and  Job  for  example !  But  how  much  more  purely  and 
powerfully,  though  without  any  consciousness  of  vileness,  do  these 
feelings  operate  in  the  hearts  of  the  redeemed  before  the  throm  \ 
who  know  so  much  of  the  sanctity  and  majesty  of  God !  They 
fall  down  before  Him  !  They  cast  their  crowns  before  the  throne. 
Then  what  ardent  love  and  fervent  gratitude  !  When  the  day  of 
judgment  has  fully  disclosed  the  destinies  of  mankind,  and  heaven 
has  received  the  whole  company  of  the  blessed ;  when  the  work 
of  redemption  in  all  its  parts  is  finished,  Christ  will  be  glorified 
in  his  saints,  and  admired  in  all  them  that  believe.  To  sit  down 


TESTIMONY  OF  REVELATION.  357 

at  the  feast  of  eternity,  a  feast  prepared  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  and  prepared  at  such  an  expense — a  feast  enjoyed  in 
security,  while  many  are  "  without,"  exposed  to  all  the  fury  of 
the  tempest  of  Divine  indignation — how  glowing  must  be  their 
love  and  gratitude  to  the  Father  who  chose  them,  to  the  Son  who 
bought  them,  to  the  Spirit  who  qualified  them  for  these  everlast 
ing  joys !  Their  enlarged  knowledge  and  deepened  humility  have 
increased  their  sense  of  obligation,  and  their  growing  intelligence 
and  lowliness  of  mind  will  increase  it  for  ever.  Every  recollec 
tion  of  sin,  every  thought  of  the  misery  of  the  lost,  eveiy  new 
view  of  the  greatness  and  purity  and  goodness  of  God  their 
Saviour  will  impart  additional  warmth  to  the  ardour  of  their  love 
and  to  the  fervour  of  their  thankfulness. 

It  is  God  who  is  the  judge  of  what  is  the  most  honourable 
employment  for  His  rational  creatures,  and  it  is  to  the  highest  and 
last  state  of  His  servants  as  appointed  and  made  known  by  Him 
that  we  are  to  look  for  a  model.  It  is  heaven  that  should  give 
law  to  earth,  not  earth  to  heaven.  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth 
even  as  it  is  done  in  heaven,"  is  a  petition  which  Christ  has 
taught  us  to  offer  at  the  throne  of  grace.  The  exercises  of  pa 
tience,  of  contrition,  of  well-doing  to  the  ignorant,  the  poor,  the 
afflicted,  the  dying,  noble  as  they  are  on  earth,  are  superseded  in 
heaven,  but  this  impairs  not  the  glory  of  heaven's  occupations. 
It  will  be  better  even  here  when  one  shall  not  need  to  say  to  his 
neighbour,  Know  the  Lord.  The  celebration  of  victory  is  better 
than  the  battle.  Who  but  a  fool  would  wish  the  times  of  tempta 
tion,  ignorance,  and  conquest  to  return  I  Who  but  a  mere  animal 
would  desire  the  Elysium  of  paganism  or  the  paradise  of  Moham 
med  ?  Who  but  a  poor  self-seeker,  an  earth-worm,  would  consider 
an  existence  spent  in  accumulating  lore  or  money  to  be  the  glory 
or  happiness  of  man  1  Who  but  a  devil  would  deem  it  "  better 
to  reign  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven  1 "  The  service  of  heaven  is 
itself  to  reign.  "  His  servants  shall  serve  him" — and  "they  shall 
reign  for  ever  and  ever."  To  serve — by  loving  supremely  Him 
who  is  altogether  lovely — by  increasing  in  the  knowledge  of  Him 
who  comprehends  in  Himself  all  that  is  true,  great,  and  good — 
and  by  praising  Him  who  alone  is  excellent,  and  the  Author  of  all 
being  and  happiness — this  is  the  high  end  of  man's  existence  at- 

16* 


358  THE  SABBATH  IN  HEAVEN 

tained — this  is  liberty,  this  is  honour,  this  is  blessedness,  this  is 
perfection. 

It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Sabbath  that  it  is  the  means  of 
manifold  blessings,  and  this  distinction  is  eminently  displayed  in 
heaven.  The  institution,  as  has  been  amply  shown,  strewed  its 
earthly  path  with  every  variety  of  good,  and  would  have-  conferred 
a  much  greater  amount  of  benefit  but  for  mistaken  friends  whe 
misrepresented  its  character  and  detracted  from  its  authority — but 
for  real  enemies  who  rejected  the  doctrine  of  its  Divine  origin  and 
obligation,  or  disobeyed  its  law.  Even  on  earth  it  was  the  means 
of  forming  a  character  and  bestowing  a  happiness,  of  which  the 
holiness  and  bliss  of  heaven  are  the  consummation.  And  its  rest, 
worship,  commemorations,  studies,  and  employments  there  will 
yield,  in  continually  growing  amount,  the  fruits  of  righteousness 
and  joy.  For  all  this  it  has  facilities  formerly  unknown — facilities 
in  the  perfect  unanimity  of  the  inhabitants  respecting  its  claims 
and  character — in  the  absence  of  all  internal  and  outward  hinder- 
ances  to  its  observance — in  the  place  itself,  where,  dwelling  on  high 
and  in  a  quiet  habitation,  they  enjoy  perfect  security  and  peace — 
and  where  they  not  only  have  the  instructive,  animating  society  of 
all  the  holy  angels  and  all  good  men,  but  walk  in  the  light  of 
that  temple  of  which  it  is  said,  "  The  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it, 
and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof." 

But  it  crowns  the  glory  of  the  Sabbath  in  heaven,  that  it  is 
eternal.  This  is  that  greatest  Sabbath  which  has  no  evening.1 
Its  rest,  its  worship,  its  society,  its  commemorations,  its  advanc 
ing  knowledge,  holiness,  and  happiness,  are  to  be  without  end. 
Spirits  replenished  with  Divine  influence,  and  having  bodies 
endowed  with  undecaying  health  and  strength,  will  be  occupied 
in  services  which  produce  no  weariness,  and  enjoy  pleasures 
which  never  pail.  The  thought,  beyond  expression  great,  is 
gloomy  to  "  men  of  the  world,  who  have  their  portion  in  this 
life,"  but  transporting  to  such  as  David,  who  expected  to  "  dwell 
in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for  ever,"  and  to  "  sing  praises,  to  God 
while  he  had  any  being," — to  such  too,  as  the  apostle,  who  felt  that 
he  could  administer  no  stronger  consolation  to  sorrowing  Christians 
than  to  say, — "  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord." 

1  Sabbathum  maximum,  non  habens  vesperam. — August.  De  Civit.  Dei,  cap.  80. 


EVIDENCE  FROM  HISTORY  FOR  A  WEEKLY 
DAY  OF  REST  AND  WORSHIP. 


TRACES  OF  SEPTENARY  INSTITUTIONS  AMONG 
PAGAN  NATIONS. 

THERE  are  certain  observances  which  have  prevailed  to  a  wide 
extent,  as  well  as  from  an  early  period,  in  the  heathen  $orld,  and 
which,  as  bearing  an  affinity  greater  or  less  to  the  Sabbatic  insti 
tution,  may  be  considered  as  affording  striking  testimony  to  its 
primeval  origin.  These  are  threefold  :  the  appropriation  of  peri 
odical  days  to  religion  and  rest  frcfcn  ordinary  labour — the  division 
of  time  into  weeks — and  the  ascription  of  special  importance  to 
the  septenary  number. 

Traces  of  sacred  days  of  some  sort,  though  varying  in  frequency 
in  different  countries,  may  be  discovered  in  many  Pagan  nations, 
the  exceptions  being  limited  to  certain  tribes  sunk,  like  the  abori 
gines  of  New  Holland,  to  a  very  low  point  in  the  social  scale. 

The  Phoenicians,  according  to  Porphyry,  "consecrated  the 
seventh  day  as  holy."1  Before  Mohammed's  time,  the  Saracens 
kept  their  Sabbath  on  Friday,  and  from  them  he  and  his  followers 
adopted  the  custom.2  It  is  stated  by  Purchas,  that  the  natives 
of  Pegu  had  a  weekly  day  on  which  they  assembled  to  receive  instruc 
tion,  from  a  class  of  men  appointed  for  the  purpose.3  The  Pagan 
Slavonians  held  a  weekly  festival.4  In  the  greater  part  of  Guinea, 
the  seventh  day — Tuesday — is  set  apart  to  religious  worship.6 

i  Euseb.  Prcepar.  Evang.  lib.  a.  c.  9.  2  Purchas's  Pilgrimage,  p.  264.  8  Ibid.  p.  574. 
*  Helmpldus,  cited  by  Ussher.  The  Judgment  of  the  late  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  pp.  79, 80. 
6  HuM's  Religious  Rites,  etc.  (1812),  p.  423.  BeU'a  Geography,  iv.  30. 


360  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

It  would  appear  that  the  Chinese,  who  have  now  no  Sabbath,  at 
one  time  honoured  the  seventh  day  of  the  week.1 

Among  the  ancient  Persians,  the  eighth  was  the  festal  day,  the 
calendar  of  the  Magi  having  this  day  marked  in  it  as  holy.2  The 
old  Roman  week  consisted  of  eight  days,  and  every  eighth  day 
was  specially  devoted  to  religious  and  other  public  purposes,  under 
the  name  Nonse  or  Nundinse,  so  called  from  the  Roman  practice 
of  adding  the  two  nundinse  to  the  seven  intervening  and  ordinary 
days  ;  in  the  same  way  as  in  Germany  and  in  our  own  country, 
the  expression,  "eight  days,"  is  used  for  a  week,  and  as  the 
French  and  Italians  call  a  fortnight  quinze  jours,  and  quindici 
giorni,  respectively.3  The  people  of  Old  Calabar  observe  an 
eighth-day  Sabbath,  termed  Aqua-erere.4  Humboldt  refers  to  an 
ancient  law  which  required  the  Peruvians  to  work  eight  consecu 
tive  days,  and  to  rest  on  the  ninth.5 

The  Burman  feasts  are  held  at  the  full  and  change  of  the  moon.6 
According  to  another  authority,  the  quarters  are  also  observed  as 
festivals.7  A  sacrifice  was  celebrated  by  the  Mexicans  every 
month,  at  the  period  of  the  full  moon,  in  a  public  place,  to  which, 
in  every  village,  the  high  road  led  from  the  house  of  the  chief  of 
the  tribe.8  The  inhabitants  o£  Madagascar  and  of  Senegambia, 
on  the  other  hand,  preferred  the  time  of  new  rnoou  for  their 
devotions.9  One  of  the  principal  stated  festivals  in  the  South 
Sea  Islands — the  pae  atua — was  held  every  three  moons.10  The 
Babylonians  solemnized,  with  great  magnificence,  five  days  of  the 
year.  Twice  every  year,  at  the  winter  and  summer  solstices,  the 
Emperor  of  China,  in  his  character  as  high  priest  of  the  nation, 
offers  prayer  and  sacrifice  to  Shang-Te,  the  Supreme  Being.11 

1  In  a  work  ascribed  to  Full-he,  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived  considerably  more 
than  four  thousand  years  ago,  the  following  remarkable  sentence  is  to  be  found  :— 
"  Every  seven  days  comes  the  revolution" — that  is,  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  as  generally 
explained  by  Chinese  scholars ;  and  it  is  a  singular  fact,  that  in  the  Chinese  almanacs 
of  the  present  day  there  are  four  names  applicable,  during  the  course  of  each  lunar 
month,  to  the  days  which  answer  to  our  Sundays. — Gillespie's  Land  ofSinim,  pp.  161, 162. 

2  Hyde  De  Relig.  Vet.  Pers.,  pp.  189,  190. 

3  Smith's  Diet.  ofGr.  and  Rom.  Antiq.,  words  Calendarium  and  Saturnalia. 

4  Communication  by  Rev.  H.  Goldie,  of  Old  Calabar,  to  the  writer. 

5  Researches,  i.  285.  6  Knowles's  Life  of  Mrs.  Judson,  p.  9& 
1  Crawford's  Embassy.  8  Humboldt's  ResearcJies,  ii.  123. 

9  Scott.  Miss.  Register,  i.  230.     Bell's  Geography  (1849),  iv.  6. 
»«  Ellis'  j  Polvncs.  Researches  (1831),  i.  350.        11  Gille.>pit's  Land  ofSinim,  p.  166. 


PAGAN  NATIONS.  361 

Annual  seasons  of  worship,  also,  have  prevailed  in  many  coun 
tries.  Besides  their  daily  offerings  and  frequent  ablutions,  the 
Hindus  have  a  grand  annual  sacrifice.1  In  China,  in  addition  to 
the  worship  constantly  performed  by  the  priests  at  the  temples, 
and  numerous  occasions,  when  the  gods  receive  special  honour, 
there  is  "  the  festival  of  the  New  Year,"  which  is  observed  in  the 
month  of  February  of  our  year,  as  a  season  of  idolatrous  worship 
and  general  festivity ;  and  is  the  only  season,  during  the  whole 
.twelve  months,  of  universal  gaiety,  and  total  cessation  from  busi 
ness.2  The  conclusion  of  the  year — called  its  "ripening" — was 
celebrated  in  Huahine,  one  of  the  Society  Islands,  with  a  festival, 
which  was  regarded  as  a  kind  of  annual  acknowledgment  to  the 
gods.3  Of  the  Saturnalia,  which,  with  the  Opalia  and  the  Sigil- 
kria,  occupied  seven  days  once  a  year,  Macrobius  affirms  that  it 
was  a  festival  older  than  Rome  itself.4  The  anniversary  of  Bel 
or  Baal  (Beltein),  lately  lingered,  if  it  does  not  still  linger,  in  some 
parts  of  Scotland.5  But  it  were  endless  to  enumerate  examples 
of  annual  festivals,  as  these,  particularly  on  the  first  day  of  the 
year,  have  been  common  in  almost  all  countries. 

While  it  will  be  admitted  that  the  instances  adduced  of  weekly 
holy  days  have  a  direct  bearing  on  our  subject,  it  may  be  asked, 
What  relation  have  octonary,  monthly,  quarterly,  or  annual  obser 
vances  to  a  seventh  day  of  rest  and  worship  ? 

Our  first  answer  to  this  question  is,  that  such  observances  ex 
emplify  the  Sabbatic  principle,  so  far  as  regards  stated  seasons  of 
devotion,  and  of  exemption  from  ordinary  labour.  This  labour  is 
discontinued,  and  homage  is  rendered  to  some  deity,  at  certain 
periodical  times.  Cases  of  Sabbatism,  to  this  extent,  are  frequent. 
The  people  of  Calabar  were  wont,  on  their  Sabbath,  to  approach 
the  Supreme  Being  (Abasi)  in  prayer ;  and  though  they  now  ob 
serve  the  day  merely  as  a  holiday  and  in  merry-making,  they 
abstain  from  labour  in  the  fields,  and  suppose,  that  if  they  did 
not  so  abstain,  their  labour  would  be  unprofitable,  and  some  evil 
would  befall  the  labo-urers.6  The  Ashantees  on  their  sacred  day, 

1  Encyclopaedia  of  Religious  Knowledge,  p.  623.  2  Gillespie's  Sinim,  pp.  67,  7i 

»  Ellis's  Polynes.  Researches  (1831),  i.  351,  352.  *  Saturnal,  lib.  i.  cap.  7. 

•  Stewart's  Sketches  of  the  Highlanders  of  Scotland,  i.  9. 

•  Communication  of  Mr.  Goldie. 


362  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

worship  their  fetiches,  and  circumcise  their  children.1  In  Guinea, 
generally,  similar  practices  have  prevailed.  Purchas  says  of  the 
people,  "  The  seventh  day  they  leave  working,  and  reckon  that  to 
be  their  day  of  ease  and  abstinence  from  work,  or  their  Sunday, 
which  they  call  Dio  Fetissos.  They  hold  it  on  Tuesday.  That 
day  the  fishermen  go  not  to  the  sea  for  fish,  etc.  They  have  a 
priest  or  fetissero.  He,  upon  their  Sabbath-day,  sits  upon  a  stool 
in  the  middle  of  the  market,  before  the  altar  or  place  whereupon 
they  sacrifice  unto  their  fetisso,  and  then  all  the  men,  women,  and. 
children  come  and  sit  round  about  him,  and  then  he  speaketh  unto 
them,  and  they  sit  still  to  hear."  2  A  recent  account  states,  that 
the  negroes  of  Guinea  desist  on  the  seventh  day  from  the  labour 
of  fishing,  though  no  other  occupation  is  interrupted,  and  that 
every  man  dedicates  to  the  honour  of  his  tutelar  divinity  one  day 
in  the  week,  on  which  he  drinks  no  palm-wine  till  sunset.3  The 
only  religious  service  in  Pegu  was  one  of  public  instruction.  The 
preachers  rose  early,  and  by  the  ringing  of  a  bason,  called  together 
the  people  to  their  sermons.4  The  Peruvians,  we  have  seen,  were 
to  rest  every  ninth  day.  On  the  days  of  the  Burrnan  feasts,  all 
public  business  is  suspended — the  people  pay  their  homage  to 
Gaudama  at  the  temples,  presenting  to  the  image,  rice,  fruits, 
flowers,  candles,  etc.  Aged  persons  often  fast  during  the  whole 
day.  Some  visit  the  colleges,  and  hear  the  priests  read  portions 
of  the  Boodhist  writings.5  The  purpose  of  the  Mexican  monthly, 
and  of  the  Hindoo  annual,  festival,  was  the  offering  of  sacrifice. 
In  Senegambia,  both  the  Kafirs  and  Mohammedan  converts,  at 
the  appearance  of  the  new  moon,  give  vent  to  an  ejaculatory 
address  to  the  Deity,  thanking  him  for  his  goodness  during  the 
month  that  has  elapsed,  and  imploring  a  continuance  of  his  favour 
during  the  month  that  is  commencing.6  The  quarterly  feast  of 
the  South  Sea  Islanders  was  observed  with  religious  rites,  followed 
by  an  entertainment ;  and  on  occasion  of  the  annual  festival  in 
Huahine,  there  were  prayers  at  the  Marae  (temple),  and  a  banquet, 
after  which  each  individual  returned  to  his  home,  or  to  hi»  family 

1  Hurd,  423. 

2  Purchas's  Pilgrimage,  "bonk  7,  ch.  2,  Beet.  4. 

*  Bell's  Geography  (1849),  iv.  30.  *  Purchas's  Pilgrimage,  p.  574. 

6  Knowles's  Life  of  Mrs.  Judson,  p.  98.  6  Bell's  Geography,  iy.  6. 


PAGAN  NATIONS.  363 

marae,  there  to  offer  special  prayers  for  the  spirits  of  departed 
relatives.1 

Such,  too,  were  the  Sabbatical  observances  of  ancient  times. 
The  Persians  worshipped  the  sun  :  in  allusion  to  which  practice, 
Tertullian  says,  J^que  si  diem  solis  laetitise  indulgemus,  alia 
longe  ratione  quam  religione  solis — "  If  we  spend  Sunday  joyfully, 
as  well  as  they,  it  is  for  a  very  different  reason  from  the  worship 
of  the  sun."  2  The  Greeks  and  Komans,  according  to  Aretius, 
consecrated  Saturday  to  rest,  conceiving  it  unfit  for  civil  actions 
and  warlike  affairs,  but  suited  for  contemplation  ;  and  a  day, 
therefore,  on  which  the  Divine  patronage  was  to  be  implored 
against  dangers  and  misfortunes.3  The  following  lines  of  the  old 
annalist,  Lucius  Accius,  quoted  by  Macrobius,  inform  us  that  the 
Greeks,  in  town  and  countiy,  especially  in  Athens,  celebrated  the 
feast  of  the  Saturnalia  in  honour  of  Saturn,  masters  and  servants 
feasting  together  : — 

"  Maxima  pars  graiurn  Saturno  ;  et  maxirne  Athenae 
Conficiunt  sacra,  quse  Cronia  esse  iterantur  ab  illis. 
Cumque  diem  celebrant,  per  agros,  urbesque  fere  omnea 
Exercent  epulis  Iseti,  famulosque  procurant 
Quisque  suos  :  nostrisque  itidem  et  mos  traditus  illhinc 
Iste,  ut  cum  dominis  famuli  turn  epuleotur  ibidem."  * 

"  The  manner  in  which  all  public  ferice  were  kept,"  to  quote 
again  from  one  of  the  best  works  on  Greek  and  Roman  antiquities, 
"  bears  great  analogy  to  our  Sunday.  The  people  generally  visited 
the  temples  of  the  gods,  and  offered  up  their  prayers  and  sacri 
fices.  The  most  serious  and  solemn  seem  to  have  been  the  ferice 
imperative,  but  all  the  others  were  generally  attended  by  rejoic 
ings  and  feastings.  All  kinds  of  business,  especially  law-suits,  were 
suspended  during  the  public  ferice,  as  they  were  considered  to 
pollute  the  sacred  season."5  The  author  proceeds  to  give  speci 
mens  of  decisions  by  Roman  pontiffs,  in  cases  of  doubt,  as  to  the 
kinds  of  work  that  might  be  done  on  the  ferice  ;  and  when  we 
mention  that  the  works  pronounced  lawful  were  such  as  had  refer- 

1  Ellis's  Polynesian  Researches,  i.  351,  352.  2  Apol.  v.  Gent.  xvii. 

8  Problem  loc.  de  Sab.  Observ.  *  Saturnal,  lib.  i  cap.  7 

6  Dictionary,  article  Ferice, 


364  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

ence  to  the  gods,  to  the  supply  of  the  urgent  wants  of  human 
life,  to  circumstances  in  which  injury  or  suffering  would  be  the 
result  of  neglect  or  delay,  as  of  a  tottering  house,  or  of  an  ox  fall 
ing  into  a  pit,  we  must  admit  the  striking  resemblance,  in  some 
respects,  of  the  ferice  to  the  Sabbath  of  Revelation. 

But  the  question  of  the  relevancy  of  heathen  holidays  to  our 
subject  requires  a  further  answer.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  these  holidays  are  corruptions  of  the  Sabbatic  institution,  as 
respects  both  its  proportion  of  time,  and  the  nature  of  its  engage 
ments.  The  curtailing  of  its  time  has  been  the  result,  in  some 
instances,  of  a  process  by  which  septenary  have  gradually  passed 
into  less  frequent,  because  thus  more  congenial  observances;  and 
in  others,  of  the  violent  and  crafty  measures  of  rulers,  who  have 
been  known  summarily  to  transfer  the  stated  rest  from  the  seventh 
day  to  a  tenth,  or  to  expunge  all  but  a  yearly  sacred  day  from  the 
national  calendars.  Such  facts  as  Jeroboam's  substitution  of  his 
one  feast  of  the  eighth  month  for  the  Jewish  feasts — the  reducing 
of  the  seasons  of  worship  in  Persia  by  Yezdegerd  to  that  of  Nau- 
ruz,  or  New- Year's  Day — and  the  institution  of  decades  in  France, 
prepare  us  for  more  readily  assenting  to  a  statement  made  by  some 
of  the  Fathers,  to  the  effect  that,  at  a  very  early  period,  the  place 
of  the  weekly  Sabbath  was  usurped  by  an  annual  religious  festival. 
And  the  revolutionized  object  and  rites,  as  well  as  day  of  the  French 
worship — the  weekly  prayers  of  Calabar  succeeded  by  mere  rest 
and  merriment — the  desecrated  Sabbath  of  the  Jews,  at  various 
periods  of  their  history,  and  of  many  professed  Christians,  still, 
with  the  entire  disappearance  of  a  seventh  sacred  day  in  China, 
if  not  also  in  the  islands  of  Polynesia — are  proofs  how  possible 
it  is,  that  a  holy  day  may  not  only  become  a  day  of  revelry  and 
wickedness,  but  ultimately  be  absorbed  in  the  current  of  ordinary 
time. 

The  distribution  of  time  into  weeks,  is  another  observance  which 
appears  to  have  a  close  connexion  with  a  septenary  day  of  rest 
and  sacredness.  The  antiquity  and  extensive  prevalence  of  this 
practice  might  be  established  by  ample  historical  details.  Let  it 
suffice,  however,  in  a  matter  on  which  there  is  so  general  an  agree 
ment,  to  present  the  words  of  four  eminent  writers  : — "  The 
septenary  arrangement  of  days,"  says  Scaliger3  "  was  in  use  among 


PAGAN  NATIONS.  365 

the  Orientals  from  the  remotest  antiquity."1  "  We  have  reason 
to  believe,"  observes  President  de  Goguet,  "  that  the  institution 
of  that  short  period  of  seven  days,  called  a  week,  was  the  first  step 
taken  by  mankind  in  dividing  and  measuring  their  time.  We  find, 
from  time  immemorial,  the  use  of  this  period  among  all  nations, 
without  any  variation  in  the  form  of  it.  The  Israelites,  Assyrians, 
Egyptians,  Indians,  Arabians,  and,  in  a  word,  all  the  nations  of 
the  east,  have  in  all  ages  made  use  of  a  week,  consisting  of  seven 
days.  We  find  the  same  custom  among  the  ancient  Eomans, 
Gauls,  Britons,  Germans,  the  nations  of  the  north,  and  of  Ame 
rica."2  According  to  Laplace,  "  the  week  is  perhaps  the  most 
ancient  and  incontestable  monument  of  human  knowledge."3  We 
add  a  sentence  from  Humboldt,  venturing,  however,  to  premise, 
that  the  Peruvian  ninth  day  of  rest  seems  to  prove  a  former  nota 
tion  of  time  by  weeks  even  in  America.  "  It  appears,"  he  re 
marks,  "  that  no  nation  of  the  New  Continent  was  acquainted 
with  the  week  or  cycle  of  seven  days,  which  we  find  among  the 
Hindoos,  the  Chinese,  the  Assyrians,  and  the  Egyptians,  and 
which,  as  Le  Gentil  has  very  justly  observed,  is  followed  by  the 
greater  part  of  the  nations  of  the  Old  World."4 

The  respect  shown  to  the  septenary  number  is  a  third  pagan 
observance  of  a  Sabbatic  character,  which  calls  for  notice.  How 
ever  much  certain  numbers,  as  three,  four,  ten,  and  others,  might 
be  prized,  none  appears  to  have  been  honoured  with  so  permanent 
and  general  an  estimation  as  the  numerus  septenarius.  There  is 
no  species  of  subject,  religious  or  secular,  divine  or  human,  spiri 
tual  or  material,  which  it  has  not  been  employed  to  illustrate  and 
magnify.  And  it  has  been  in  use  for  these  purposes  by  peoples 
the  most  diversified  in  condition,  and  the  most  remote  from  each 
other  in  place  and  time.  It  has  been  consulted  in  the  construc 
tion  alike  of  Egyptian  pyramids  and  cities,  Assyrian  and  Arabian 
temples,  and  Indian  pagodas.  It  has  been  sacred  equally  to  Saturn 
and  to  the  planets,  to  the  sun-god  of  Persia,  and  to  the  elements 
and  week-gods  of  Scandinavia.  It  has  determined  the  number  of 
the  seasons  of  mourning,  and  the  days  of  expiation — of  the  won 
ders  of  the  world,  .and  the  wise  among  men.  It  directed  the 

i  De  Emend.  Temp.  lib.  i.  3  The  Origin  of  Laws  (1761),  vol.  i.  p.  230. 

«  (Euvres,  torn.  vi.  (1846),  liv.  i.  ch.  3.        *  Researches,  vol.  i.  p.  283. 


366  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

heating  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace.  It  ruled  the  retinue  of  the 
court  of  Shushan.  It  has  sounded  the  depths  of  slavery.  It  has 
measured  noble  deeds.  Ajax  bore  his  shield  covered  with  seven 
hides.  Boreas  ruled  in  his  sevenfold,  many-celled  cave.  The 
classes  of  the  Polynesian  areois,  supposed  to  be  a  society  of  divine 
original,  were  seven.  The  chosen  conductors  of  the  great  annual 
sacrifice  offered  by  the  wild  Indians  were  seven.  The  priests 
who  prepared  the  more  solemn  feasts  in  ancient  Eome  were  seven. 
Seven  was  the  complete  number  of  sacrificial  victims  with  Deio- 
phobe  as  with  Balaam — in  Athens  as  in  the  land  of  Uz.  Seven 
ewe-lambs  sealed  the  covenant  between  Abraham  and  Abimelech. 
Agamemnon's  peace-offering  to  Achilles  included  seven  tripods  and 
seven  maids.  Seven  ages  were  the  gift  of  the  gods  to  Tithonus ; 
and  according  to  Shakspere, 

"  All  the  world's  a  stage,- 
And  all  the  men  and  women  merely  players : 
They  have  tlieir  exits  and  their  entrances, 
And  one  man  in  his  time  plays  many  parts  : 
His  acts  being  seven  ages." 

And  taking  a  loftier  flight  than  our  poet,  the  Hindu,  not  unlike 
the  Mohammedan,  whose  expected  paradise  is  seven  heavens, 
imagines  a  sidereal  ladder,  through  whose  seven  gates  his  soul 
is  to  ascend  to  the  residence  of  Brama — its  own  pristine  as  well 
as  last  abode  of  bliss. 

In  accounting  for  facts  so  diversified,  and  yet  having  so  much 
in  common,  we  must  resort  to  some  powerful  variable  force,  not 
to  a  physical  or  natural  law.  If,  for  example,  there  had  been 
anything,  as  there  was  not,  in  the  revolution  of  the  moon,  or  in 
the  peculiar  excellence  of  the  number  "  Seven,"  to  originate  sep 
tenary  observances,  the  observances  would  have  been  found  where- 
ever  the  course  of  the  planet  was  seen,  or  the  number  known. 
We  must,  moreover,  trace  the  facts  to  a  cause  operating  at  a  re 
mote  fountainhead  of  nations.  Laplace  assigns  to  the  week  a 
high  antiquity,  and  its  existence  among  all  successive  generations 
is  held  to  be  "  a  proof  of  their  common  origin."1  The  septenary 
enumeration  of  the  planets,  and  Jewish  examplet  came  too  late  to 

1  Qtuvres,  torn.  vi.  liv.  i.  chap.  iii. 


PAGAN  NATIONS.  367 

produce  the  first  instances  of  the  week  in  heathendom.  Finally, 
the  greater  prevalence  of  this  division  of  time  in  the  East  seems 
to  point  to  its  origin  in  that  direction. 

All  these  conditions  are  fulfilled  by  the  account  in  the  Penta 
teuch,  the  oldest  of  books,  which  relates,  that  the  Creator  having 
made  the  world  in  six  days,  rested  on,  blessed,  and  sanctified  the 
seventh  ;  and  which,  after  repeated  notices  of  worship,  and  of  re 
spect  for  the  number  seven,  as  applied  to  time  as  to  other  things, 
acquaints  us  with  the  dispersion  from  Shinar,  into  all  countries, 
of  the  descendants  of  the  only  family  that  had  survived  the  deso 
lating  flood.  By  them  were  the  creation,  the  week,  the  state  of 
innocence,  the  fall,  the  deluge,  and  other  subjects — all  recorded 
afterwards  by  Moses,  and  found  pervading  and  partially  redeem 
ing  so  many  heathen  mythologies — made  known  throughout  the 
world.  In  the  relation  of  septenary  observances  to  religion,  crea 
tion,  and  the  flood,  aided  by  the  proverbial  power  of  customs  de 
rived  from  ancestors,  we  find  the  moral  force  adequate  to  the 
conveyance  of  these  observances,  despite  of  many  hostile  influences, 
over  thousands  of  years.  But  a  momentum,  depending  upon 
fading  traditions,  must  decrease  ;  and  hence  changes  have  come 
over  the  week  and  Sabbath  of  Paganism,  while  in  countries  en 
joying  a  written  revelation,  they  have  remained  in  their  integrity 
and  power. 

If  philosophy,  which  disclaims  the  fanciful  and  the  intricate, 
when  she  has  found  the  simple  and  the  satisfactory,  be  listened  to, 
it  will  be  admitted  that  the  traces  of  pagan  rites  confirm  the 
Mosaic  record,  and  the  doctrine  of  a  primal,  Divine  Sabbath,  by 
an  amount  of  evidence  which,  in  a  matter  involving  no  fierce 
antipathies,  would  command  an  unhesitating  and  unqualified 
belief.  "  Many  vain  conjectures  have  been  formed  concerning 
the  reasons  and  motives  which  determined  all  mankind  to  agree 
in  this  primitive  division  of  their  time.  Nothing  but  tradition 
concerning  the  space  of  time  employed  in  the  creation  of  the 
world,  could  give  rise  to  this  universal,  immemorial  practice."1 

»  President  de  Goguet    Origin  of  Law,  TO!  L  p.  280. 


368  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 


THE  SABBATH  OR  LORD'S  DAY  IN  THE  FIRST  THREE 
CENTURIES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

A  statement  of  the  evidence  for  the  authority  and  value  of  the 
Sabbath  would  be  incomplete  without  some  account  of  its  history. 
The  Word  of  God,  indeed,  is  the  standard  of  all  religious  faith 
and  practice,  but  we  must  be  indebted  to  the  annals  of  the  world, 
and  especially  of  the  Church,  for  help  in  ascertaining  the  canon 
of  revelation,  in  interpreting  its  language,  and  in  verifying  its 
declarations  and  prophecies,  its  promises  and  warnings.  In  the 
aid  derived  from  these  annals  our  subject  largely  shares.  The 
manifold  vestiges  of  the  Sabbatic  institution,  traceable  in  the 
written  remains  of  heathen  nations,  strikingly  confirm  the  doctrine 
of  its  primaeval  and  Divine  appointment.  And  as  we  follow  its 
track  in  Christendom,  we  find  that  ecclesiastical  records  render,  in 
various  forms,  still  more  important  service. 

The  history  of  the  earlier  centuries  of  Christianity  throws  light 
on  the  meaning  of  certain  Scripture  terms  which  have  been  the 
occasion  of  a  vexed  question  among  controversialists.  In  desig 
nating  what  is  now  known  amongst  us  as  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
the  Fathers  make  use  of  names  which  they  never  apply  to  any 
other  day  of  the  week.  With  them  "  the  eighth  day,"  "  the  day 
of  the  Sun,"  «  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  and  "  the  Lord's  Day," 
signify  one  particular  day  and  no  other.  Barnabas,  or  whoever 
was  the  author  of  the  Catholic  Epistle  ascribed  to  him,  mentions 
"  the  eighth  day"  as  that  on  which  "  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead," 
and  which  the  Christians  of  his  time  observed  as  a  festal  day.1 
We  are  informed  by  Justin  Martyr,  that  the  Christians  of  the 
second  century  assembled  on  "  the  day  of  the  Sun,"  and  that  they 
did  so,  "  because  on  this  first  clay  God  made  the  world,  and  Jesus 
Christ  our  Saviour  rose  from  the  dead."2  The  same  Father 
affirms,  that  "  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  eighth  day," 
which,  he  adds,  "  may  be  called  the  eighth  and  yet  remains  the 
first."3  In  the  third  century,  Cyprian  represents  the  eighth  day 
as  both  "the  first  after  the  Sabbath,  and  the  Lord's  Day."4 

1  Epist.  c.  15.  2  Apol  1,  adjlnem. 

»  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  c.  41.  *  Epist.  64. 


CENIUEIES  I.-IIL  369 

When  we  compare  these  passages  with  each  other,  we  find  that 
"  the  eighth  day,"  "  the  day  of  the  Sun,"  or  Sunday,  "  the  day  of 
the  Redeemer's  resurrection,"  "  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  and 
11  the  Lord's  Day,"  are,  according  to  the  combined  testimony  of 
Barnabas,  Justin  Martyr,  and  Cyprian,  the  same  day.  Were  it 
not  that  we  are  limited  by  our  theme  to  a  certain  period,  we  might 
enlarge  the  proof  from  the  language  of  Hilary,  Ambrose,  Chry- 
sostom,  and  Augustine.  Theorists,  who  affirm  that  the  Jewish 
seventh  day  continues  the  day  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  others, 
who  assert  that  there  is  no  evidence  in  the  New  Testament  for 
the  Divine  appointment  of  a  day  of  sacred  rest  under  Christianity 
at  all,  have  thus  one  of  the  chief  grounds  of  their  opinions  swept 
away — the  ground,  that  the  expressions,  "  the  first  day  of  the 
week,"  and  "  the  Lord's  Day,"  do  not  denote  the  day  to  which  in 
our  time  they  are  usually  applied.  There  is  the  most  satisfactory 
proof  in  Scripture  itself,  that  the  designations  must  be  so  under 
stood  ;  but  when  Christian  writers — some  of  whom  were  conver 
sant  with  persons  that  might  have  seen  and  heard  the  apostle 
John — agree  with  the  great  body  of  Christians  in  their  views  of 
such  phraseology,  not  a  shade  of  doubt  ought  to  remain  as  to  tht 
correctness  of  the  interpretation. 

It  is  otherwise,  as  respects  uniformity  of  meaning,  with  the 
word  "  Sabbath,"  which  is  not  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers 
employed  to  indicate  exclusively  one  day.  The  earlier  Fathers 
appear  always  to  express  by  it  the  "  seventh "  day,  while  they 
designate  by  some  one  or  other  of  the  above-mentioned  terms  the 
distinctive  season  of  Christian  worship.  As  "the  Sabbath"  had 
been  for  so  long  a  time  the  well-known  title  of  the  weekly  holy 
day  among  the  Jews,  it  was  obviously  needful  for  preventing  mis 
take,  that  the  institution  which  had  passed  to  a  new  day  should 
have  a  new  name.  But  as  time  advanced,  and  may  not  we  add,  as 
the  Lord's  day  came  to  be  no  longer  in  danger  of  being  confounded 
with  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  the  old  name  was  gradually  resumed 
and  attached  to  the  Christian  holy  day.  The  earliest  instance  of 
the  restoration  of  the  word  to  its  ancient  honour,  that  we  have 
discovered,  occurs  in  a  passage  of  Irenseus  (A.D.  178),  where, 
after  showing  that  Christ  in  healing  the  sick  did  nothing  "  beyond 
the  law  of  the  Sabbath-day,"  he  draws  the  conclusion,  that  "  the 


370  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

true  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  consists  in  doing  works  of 
mercy."1  He  is  followed  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  who  holds 
the  eighth  day  "to  be  properly  the  Sabbath,  but  the  seventh  a 
working  day  ;"2  and  by  Origen,  who  says,  "  Leaving  the  Jewish 
observances,  let  us  see  how  the  Sabbath  ought  to  be  kept  by  a 
Christian  ;"  concluding  his  description  with  the  words,  "  This  is 
the  observance  of  the  Christian  Sabbath."3  Examples  might 
also  be  given  from  the  writings  of  Gregory  of  JSTyssa,  Jerome, 
Augustine,  Rufinus,  and  Chrysostom,  but  they  belong  to  a  later 
date.  Several  instances,  doubtless,  exist  in  which  Augustine  and 
others  employ  the  word  "  Sabbath"  in  its  original  acceptation. 
But  this  they  do  when  they  have  occasion  to  mention  and  discrimi 
nate  the  Jewish  and  Christian  weekly  days  of  rest ;  and,  even  in 
this  case,  they  sometimes  say,  "  the  Jewish  Sabbath."  On  other 
occasions,  they  feel  that  there  is  no  need  of  any  explanatory  or 
qualifying  epithet  when  they  call  the  Lord's  day  the  Sabbath  ; 
a  fact  which  is  only  in  harmony  with  the  conviction,  everywhere 
manifest  in  their  writings,  that  the  Sabbatic  institution  had,  be 
sides  specific  relations  to  the  Mosaic  and  Christian  economies,  a 
generic  rest  and  sacredness  common  to  all  times.  The  Fathers 
might  conceive,  as  many  since  their  days  have  done,  that  there  is 
something  in  a  name,  and  that  though  circumstances  required 
them  for  a  time  to  restrict  themselves  to -certain  expressions,  they 
could  not,  in  justice  to  ancient  rights,  or  dutifully  to  the  immut 
able  Decalogue,  surrender  a  word  so  significant  of  their  privileges 
and  obligations  as  "  the  Sabbath." 

There  is  a  particular  instance  of  the  employment  of  the  word 
"  Sabbath-day,"  in  the  New  Testament,  as  to  the  reference  of 
which,  whether  to  the  seventh-day  or  to  the  first-day  Sabbath, 
there  has  been  some  controversy.  It  has  occurred  to  us  that  a 
solution  of  the  difficulty  may  be  found  in  the  following  remarks. 
Jerusalem  was  taken  and  destroyed  by  Titus  in  A.D.  70.  Our 
Lord  had,  in  reference  to  that  event,  said  to  his  disciples,  "  There 
shall  not  an  hair  of  your  head  perish.  When  ye  shall  see  Jeru 
salem  compassed  with  armies,  then  know  that  the  desolation 
thereof  is  nigh.  Then  let  them  which  are  in  Judea  flee  to  the 

i  Adv.  Hceres,  lib.  iv.  t.  19.  2  Strom,  lib.  vi.  c.  10. 

*  Horn.  23,  in  Num. 


CENTURIES  i.-m.  371 

mountains,  and  let  them  which  are  in  the  midst  of  it  depart  out " 
(Luke  xxi.  18,  20,  21).  In  fulfilment  of  these  words,  both  of 
promise  and  command,  the  Christians  had  escaped  and  taken  re 
fuge  at  Pella.1  From  the  tactics  employed  by  the  Roman  gene 
ral,  we  learn  what  day  was  intended  in  another  command  of  our 
Lord  to  his  disciples  :  "  Pray  ye  that  your  flight  be  not  in  the 
winter,  neither  on  the  Sabbath-day"  (Matt.  xxiv.  20).  We  are 
nowhere  informed  of  the  precise  time  at  which  the  Christians  left 
the  city.  It  is  only  in  general  terms  stated  by  Eusebius  that 
they  did  so  after  the  war  had  commenced  under  the  conduct  of 
Titus.  It  has  often  been  affirmed  that  they  left  the  city  at  the 
time  of  the  retreat  of  Cestius  Gallus,  when,  according  to  Josephus, 
many  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Jews  swam  away  from  the  city 
as  from  a  sinking  ship.2  But  the  departure  of  the  Christians  is 
not  mentioned  by  that  historian  as  having  then  occurred,  nor  does 
the  supposition  agree  with  the  language  either  of  Eusebius  or  of 
the  evangelists,  the  latter  defining  the  time  as  that  when  Jeru 
salem  was  to  be  encompassed  with  armies,  and  the  abomination  of 
desolation  should  stand  in  the  holy  place  (Matt.  xxiv.  15  ;  Mark 
xiii.  14  ;  Luke  xxi.  20).  The  military  ensigns  were  the  chief 
objects  of  Roman  idolatry,  and  when  these  were  brought  to  the 
temple,  and  sacrifices  were  offered  to  them,  "  the  abomination  of 
desolation  stood  in  the  holy  place."  This  was  the  signal  for  flight 
to  the  followers  of  Christ.  The  season  was  summer,  and  the  day 
was  not  the  Lord's  day, — for  on  that  day  Titus  made  his  attacks, 
— but  a  Jewish  Sabbath-day,  when,  knowing  that  the  inhabitants 
would  not  desecrate  the  time  by  any  military  or  other  work,  he 
employed  himself  in  constructing  machines,  and  making  his  pre 
parations  for  the  active  prosecution  of  the  siege  on  the  other 
days.3  Saturday  was  the  most  convenient,  if  not  the  only  pos 
sible  day,  on  which  the  Christians  could  leave  the  city.  In  their 
situation,  it  is  not  conceivable  that  they  could  forget  their  Lord's 
command  to  them  to  pray.  Their  supplications  were  heard  as 

i  Euseb.  Hist.  lib.  ii;  c.  5.  2  Wars  of  the  Jews,  B.  li.  cli.  20. 

3  Titus  employed  the  Sabbath-days  in  constructing  machines,  etc.,  previous  to  his 
attacks  on  the  following  Sundays.  His  first  assault  was  on  Sunday,  April  22,  A.D.  70. 
Part  of  the  lower  city  was  taken,  Sunday,  May  6 ;  the  temple  was  burnt,  Sunday. 
August  5  ;  and  the  upper  city  was  taken  and  destroyed,  Sunday,  Sept.  2. — Kitto'S 
History  of  Palestine,  vol.  ii.  p.  756. 


372  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

regarded  the  season.  They  must  have  been  heard  also  as  to 
the  day.  If  we  are  right  in  conceiving  that  the  day  of  their 
escape  was  a  Saturday,  the  Sabbath-day  referred  to  in  Matt, 
xxiv.  20  was  not,  as  some  contend,  the  last,  but  the  first  day 
of  the  week. 

We  have  abundant  evidence  that  a  stated  day  was  sacredly  ob 
served  by  the  Christians  in  the  first  three  centuries,  and  that  this 
was  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

Clement  of  Eome  (68-70),  in  writing  on  behalf  of  the  Church 
there  to  the  Church  of  Corinth,  says  :  "  We  ought  to  do  in  order 
all  things  which  the  Lord  hath  required  us  to  observe  at  stated 
times.  The  offerings  and  sacred  services,  which  it  is  our  duty  to 
render,  he  hath  commanded  to  be  presented  neither  carelessly 
nor  irregularly,  but  at  appointed  times  and  hours." 1  The  writer 
here  intimates,  as  a  fact  known  to  both  churches,  that  Christ  had 
prescribed  seasons  for  divine  worship.  The  want  of  reference 
to  any  particular  season  by  name  implies  the  notoriety  of  the 
matter. 

We  have  followed  the  transactions  of  the  second  century  for 
only  a  very  few  years,  when  we  light  upon  a  record  of  sacred  usage 
in  Bithynia,  the  more  satisfactory  in  some  respects  that  it  comes 
from  a  hostile  quarter.  We  refer  to  the  celebrated  letter  of  Pliny 
the  younger,  written  to  the  Emperor  Trajan.  As  lieutenant  oi 
the  emperor  in  Pontus  and  Bithynia,  he  had  been  ordered  to  em 
ploy  the  severest  measures  against  the  Christians  under  his 
authority,  but  judged  it  prudent,  before  proceeding  to  the  utmost 
rigour,  to  represent  their  case  to  his  master.  He  says,  that  after 
being  examined,  "  they  affirmed  that  the  whole  of  their  fault  or 
error  lay  in  this,  that  they  were  wont  to  meet  together  on  a  stated 
day,  before  it  was  light,  and  sing  among  themselves  by  turns  a 
hymn  to  Christ  as  God,  and  to  bind  themselves  by  an  oath,  not 
to  the  commission  of  any  wickedness,  but  not  to  be  guilty  of 
theft,  or  robbery,  or  adultery,  never  to  break  a  promise,  or  to 
deny  a  pledge  committed  to  them  when  called  upon  to  return  it. 
When  these  things  were  performed,  it  was  their  custom  to  sepa 
rate,  and  then  to  come  together  again  to  a  meal,  which  they  ate 
in  common  without  any  disorder  ;  but  this  they  had  forborne 

1  Epist.  sect.  40. 


CENTURIES  I. -III.  37  £ 

since  the  publication  of  my  edict,  whereby,  according  to  your 
commands,  I  prohibited  assemblies."1  How  extensively  the  reli 
gion,  which  Pliny  calls  "  the  superstition,"  of  these  good  and 
peaceful  members  of  society,  had  spread,  appears  when  he  adds  : 
"  Many  of  all  ages,  and  every  rank,  of  both  sexes  likewise,  are 
accused  and  will  be  accused.  Nor  has  the  contagion  of  the  super 
stition  seized  cities  only,  but  the  smaller  towns  also,  and  the  open 
country.  Nevertheless,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  may  be  restrained  or 
corrected.  It  is  certain  that  the  temples,  which  were  almost  for 
saken,  begin  to  be  more  frequented,  and  the  sacred  solemnities, 
after  a  long  intermission,  are  revived.  Victims,  also,  are  every 
where  bought  up,  whereas  for  some  time  there  were  few  pur 
chasers." 

Fr6m  this  time,  for  a  period  of  some  thirty  years,  we  find  no 
trace  of  the  Lord's  Day.  But  the  circumstantial  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  Christians  spent  their  holy  day,  as  given 
by  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  first  Apology  (A.D.  138  or  139),  fully 
compensates  the  preceding  blank.  "  On  the  day  called  Sunday," 
he  writes,  "  there  is  a  meeting  in  one  place  of  all  who  reside 
whether  in  the  towns  or  in  the  country,  and  the  memoirs  of  the 
apostles,  and  the  writings  of  the  prophets  are  read.  The  reader 
having  concluded,  the  president  delivers  a  discourse,  instructing 
the  people,  and  exhorting  them  to  imitate  the  good  things  which 
they  have  heard.  Then  we  all  stand  up  together,  and  engage  in 
prayer,  after  which  bread  is  brought  in,  with  wine  and  water. 
The  president  offers  uj5,  according  to  his  ability,  prayers  and 
thanks  a  second  time,  to  which  the  people  express  their  assent 
with  a  loud  Amen.  Then  follow  a  general  distribution  and  partir 
cipation  of  the  things  for  which  thanks  have  been  given,  and  a 
portion  is  conveyed  to  the  absent  by  the  deacons.  The  more 
affluent  contribute  of  their  substance  as  each  is  inclined,  and  the 
remnant  is  intrusted  to  the  president,  wherewith  he  relieves  the 
orphans,  widows,  etc.  We  all  assemble  together  in  common  on 
Sunday,  because  it  was  on  this  first  day  that  God  having  changed 
darkness  and  chaos,  made  the  world,  and  because  on  the  same  day 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  rose  from  the  dead.  For  he  was  crucified 
;he  day  before  that  of  Saturn,  and  on  the  day  after  that  of 

i  C.  Plin.  C.  Sac.  lib.  x.  er>.  97. 
17 


374  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

Saturn,  which  is  the  day  of  the  Sun,  he  appeared  to  his  apostles 
and  disciples,  and  taught  them  what  we  now  submit  to  your  con 
sideration."1 

After  a  lapse  of  another  period  of  thirty  years,  we  are  again 
furnished  with  ample  testimony  to  the  continued  life  and  vigour 
of  the  institution.  In  A.D.  170,  the  Lord's  day  is  known  at 
Sardis,  for  Melito,  bishop  of  the  church  there,  writes  a  book  on 
the  subject,  and  Eusebius,  who  supplies  the  information,  and  who 
attests  the  character  of  the  weekly  holy  day  in  his  own  time,  must 
be  considered  as  intimating  the  identity  of  the  sacred  season  in 
Sardis  and  Caesarea.  Of  the  same  date  is  the  evidence  of 
Theophilus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  who  appeals  to  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day  as  a  custom  in  the  churches,  and  of  Dionysius, 
bishop  of  Corinth,  who,  in  writing  to  the  Romans,  and  to  Soter, 
their  bishop,  and  after  commending  them  for  their  liberality  to 
their  brethren  and  to  other  churches,  which  had  distinguished 
them  during  their  whole  history,  remarks,  "  We  have  passed  (or 
kept)  the  Lord's  day  and  perused  your  epistle,  which  we  shall 
hereafter  read  continually,  as  we  do  that  of  Clemens,  that  we  may 
be  replenished  with  precepts  and  wholesome  instructions."2  Al 
ready,  we  see,  had  a  practice  been  introduced  different  from  that 
described  by  Justin  Martyr,  who  says  nothing  of  any  reading  in 
the  church  but  of  the  sacred  writings.  -The  words  of  Dionysius, 
however,  while  they  clearly  certify  the  regular  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day  at  Corinth,  imply  a  common  understanding  and  interest 
in  the  subject  there  and  in  Rome,  and  also'  suggest  what  must  have 
been  "  the  appointed  times,"  referred  to  in  the  epistle  which 
Clement  had  written  from  the  church  of  the  latter  city  to  that  of 
the  former  a  hundred  years  before. 

The  words  of  Irenasus  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus  (A.D.  178) 
on  the  subject,  are  more  appropriate  to  a  subsequent  page.  It  is 
enough  at  present  to  say,  that  the  language  of  both  writers  indi 
cates  the  general  respect  for  the  Lord's  day  which  was  entertained 
at  the  period  when  they  flourished. 

Like  Pliny  and  Justin  Martyr,  but  with  still  more  detail,  Ter- 
tullian  sets  forth  the  manner  in  which  Christian  worship  was  con 
ducted  in  his  time.  Although  he  does  not  mention  the  tiaj  in 

i  Apol  1,  adfinem.  »  Euseb.  Eccl  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  22. 


CENTURIES  r.-m.  375 

the  description  itself,  he  has,  in  a  preceding  chapter  of  the  same 
work,  declared,  that  the  Christians  solemnized  "  the  day  of  the 
Sun,"  "  the  day  after  Saturday,  in  distinction  from  those  who  call 
this  day  their  Sabbath."  The  passage  is  too  long  for  insertion, 
but  the  following  is,  we  trust,  a  faithful  translation  of  so  much  of 
it  as  bears  upon  our  subject : — "  We  Christians,  incorporated  by 
our  common  faith,  worship,  and  hopes,  meet  for  prayer,  in  which 
we  as  it  were  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  a  violence  grateful 
to  God,  not  forgetting  to  offer  up  supplications  for  emperors,  and 
all  in  authority,  for  the  prosperity  and  peace  of  the  state,  and 
for  the  delay  of  the  final  doom.  We  assemble,  also,  for  receiving 
instruction,  warning;  and  exhortation  from  the  Divine  Word, 
whereby  we  nourish  our  faith,  animate  our  hope,  establish  our 
confidence,  and  stir  up  ourselves  by  every  argument  to  the  practice 
of  good  works.  On  these  occasions  discipline  is  administered  witk 
all  solemnity,  and  the  censures  pronounced  on  offenders  are  re 
garded  as  anticipating  the  judgment  to  come.  Every  one  puts 
something  into  the  public  stock  once  a  month,  or  when  he  pleases, 
and  according  to  his  ability  and  inclination,  for  there  is  no  com 
pulsion  ;  these  pious  deposits  being  applied,  not  to  the  indulgence 
of  appetite,  but  in  aid  of  the  poor,  orphans,  the  aged,  the  ship 
wrecked,  the  persecuted,  and  for  burying  the  dead.  Then  follows 
a  supper,  a  love-feast,  not  an  entertainment  for  the  sensual,  but  a 
refreshment  to  the  hungry  and  the  needy.  To  this  supper  we  do 
not  sit  down  till  we  have  previously  tasted  the  pleasure  of  prayer 
to  God ;  we  sup  in  the  recollection  that  God  is  to  be  worshipped 
in  the  night  season,  and  we  converse  with  the  consciousness  that 
He  hears  us.  Praise  succeeds,  and  the  whole  is  concluded  with 
prayer,  when  we  depart ;  not  for  the  purposes  of  dissipation,  licen 
tiousness,  or  violence,  but  with  the  same  regard  to  purity  and 
moderation  as  in  our  coming  together,  like  men  who  have  been 
enjoying  a  spiritual  banquet  rather  than  a  common  supper."1 
Thus,  for  another  century,  notwithstanding  a  variety  of  influences 
tending  to  its  injury,  has  the  Lord's  day  continued  to  maintain  its 
pre-eminence,  and  to  be  kept  with  sacred  care.  And  it  is  import 
ant  to  remark  the  connexion  of  a  well-observed  holy  day  with  the 
general  excellence  of  the  Church,  since  it  was  at  this  time  that 

i  Apol.  c.  89 


376  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

the  beautiful  panegyric  was  extorted  from  her  enemies,  "  Behold 
how  these  Christians  love  one  another  ! "  l 

In  the  third  century,  amidst  various  internal  sources  of  weak 
ness  to  the  Church,  and  assaults  against  her  from  without,  the 
weekly  holy  day  continued  to  be  held  in  honour.  "  On  a  solemn 
day,"  says  Minucius  Felix,  referring  to  the  day  of  public  worship, 
and  of  the  love-feast  which  followed,  "  persons  of  both  sexes,  and 
of  every  age,  assemble  at  a  feast  with  all  their  children,  sisters 
and  mothers."2  The  writings  of  Origen  show  that  the  Lord's 
day  was  observed  at  Alexandria,  and  that  he  was  careful  to  instruct 
his  flock  in  the  duties  of  the  day.3  Cyprian  of  Carthage  has  a 
single  sentence  on  the  subject,  afterwards  to  be  quoted,  which  is 
the  more  important  that  it  expresses  the  views  of  a  Council  held 
in  A.D.  253,  and  which  implies  the  unchallenged  recognition  in 
his  time  of  the  institution  itself.  And  the  evidence  of  Commodian 
(A.D.  270),  who  mentions  the  Lord's  day,  and  of  Victorine  (A.D. 
290),  who  says,  "  It  is  our  custom  then  [on  the  seventh  day]  to 
fast,  lest  we  should  seem  to  observe  the  Sabbath  of  the  Jews  ;"4 
was  only  wanting  to  complete  the  proof  that  the  lapse  of  three 
centuries,  with  the  assaults  of  heathen  and  Jewish  persecution, 
and  the  growing  corruption  of  the  Church,  has  left  to  a  great  ex 
tent  in  its  primitive  simplicity  and  sacredness,  the  ordinance  of  a 
weekly  season  of  rest  and  devotion. 

The  history  of  the  period  under  review,  besides  throwing  light 
on  the  names  and  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  acquaints  us  with 
the  doctrinal  views  entertained  by  the  early  Fathers  in  reference  to 
the  institution.  We  indeed  have  the  same  Scriptures  to  deter 
mine  our  creed  on  the  subject  as  they  had  ;  but  when  a  doctrine 
is  apparently  consonant  to  that  supreme  authority,  our  confidence 
in  the  conviction  that  we  have  read  the  document  correctly,  is 
strongly  confirmed  by  the  coincidence  of  our  opinions  with  those 
of  good  men,  especially  of  such  of  them  as  lived  within  a  compa 
ratively  short  time  of  the  apostolic  age.  Tertullian,  Origen,  and 
Cyprian,  uncontradicted  by  any  early  Christian  writers,  held,  that 
the  Sabbath  was  of  primaeval  appointment.  Little  has  been  said 

1  Ibid.    Tertullian  mentions  (Adv.  Psyc.  c.  13),  that  the  psalm  most  frequently  sung 
t»y  the  Christians  was  the  133d.  2  Octavius,  c.  9. 

9  Contr.  Celmm,  lib.  8.     Horn.  5.  in  Isa.  H.  4  Holden  on  the  Sabbath,  p.  306. 


CENTT7EIES  I.-IU.  377 

on  the  theory  of  the  institution  by  the  Fathers  who  preceded 
Tertullian.  He  states,  "  that  Christ  himself  made  the  Sabbath- 
day  more  holy  by  his  well-doing  on  it,  which  by  the  blessing  of 
the  Father  was  made  holy  from  the  beginning;"1  and  declares, 
that  this  view  of  the  antiquity  of  the  day  was  entertained  by  the 
Jews  of  his  time.2  Origen  expresses  the  opinion,  that  Job  ob 
served  a  seventh  day,  and  regards  the  narrative  in  Genesis  ii.  1-3, 
as  intimating  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  when  the  work  of 
creation  was  finished.3 

The  Fathers  of  the  first  three  centuries  believed  that  the  Jewish 
Sabbath-day  had  been  set  aside.  To  Trypho's  assumption  of  the . 
permanence  of  the  seventh-day  rest,  Justin  Martyr  replies,  "  There 
was  no  need  of  the  Sabbaths,  nor  festivals,  nor  oblations,  before 
Moses ;  so  now,  in  like  manner,  there  is  no  need  of  them,  since 
Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  God,  was,  by  the  determinate  counsel  of 
God,  born  of  a  virgin,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  without  sin."  4 
Clemens  Alexandrinus  regards  the  seventh  day  as  no  longer  en 
titled  to  be  called  the  Sabbath,  but  as  having  taken  the  place  of 
a  working  day.5  The  same  doctrine  is  held  by  Tertullian,  who 
says,  in  name  of  Christians,  "  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Sabbaths,  new  moons,  and  feasts  in  which  God  at  one  time  took 
pleasure."6  He  .affirms,  and  enlarges  on  the  statement,  that  the 
seventh  day  was  "a  temporary  Sabbath."7  Additional  illustra 
tions  will  occur  under  our  next  remark. 

According  to  the  early  Fathers,  the  first  day  of  the  week  has 
been  by  Divine  authority  appointed  the  day  of  rest  and  worship 
for  Christians,  in  place  of  the  seventh,  the  day  of  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.  Clement  of  Eome,  as  we  have  seen,  urges  attention  to 
the  seasons  of  worship  which  Christ  had  commanded  to  be  ob 
served.  Barnabas,  disclaiming  the  old  Sabbath-day,  declares  the 
eighth  day  to  be  its  acceptable  substitute.8  Justin  Martyr,  too, 
not  only  condemns  the  Jews  for  adhering  to  the  former  day,  but 
describes  the  worship  of  the  Christians  in  his  time  as  observed  on 
the  day  of  the  sun,  and  states  that  they  assembled  for  that  pur- 

1  Adv.  Marcion,  lib.  iv.  c.  12.  2  Adv.  Jud.  c.  iv. 

»  Kennicott's  Two  Dissert,  p.  169,  note.     Origenis  Con.  Cels.,  lib.  6  (Cantab.  1658),  p. 
817,  et  in  Mat.  Tract,  p.  20.         *  Dial,  cum  Tryph,  sect  23.         *  Strom,  lib.  Ti  «.  16. 
«  De  Idolatrid,  c.  14.  T  Adv.  Jud.  lib.  ir.  •  Eptst.  c.  15. 


378  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

pose  on  the  first  day,  as  it  was  the  day  on  which  God  made  the 
world,  and  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  rose  from  the  dead.1  "  This 
commandment,"  says  Clement  of  Alexandria,  "  informs  us  that  the 
world  was  made  by  God,  and  that  he  gave  us  the  seventh  day  for 
rest  on  account  of  the  sufferings  and  afflictions  of  life ;  and  the 
eighth  day,"  he  adds,  "  appears  rightly  to  be  named  the  seventh, 
and  to  be  the  true  Sabbath,  but  the  seventh  to  be  a  working 
day."2  The  writings  of  Tertullian  abound  in  testimonies  to  his 
faith  in  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Lord's  day,  some  of  which 
will  fall  to  be  noticed  under  another  head.  Cyprian  testifies  to 
the  same  belief.  In  writing  to  Fidus,  one  of  the  clergy  of  Car 
thage,  who  held  that  infants  ought  not  to  be  baptized  before  the 
eighth  day,  and  informing  him  of  the  decision  against  him  of  a 
council  called  to  consider  his  opinion,  he  says,  that  the  practice 
of  observing  circumcision  on  the  eighth  day  was  a  type  fulfilled 
in  Christ,  and  adds,  "For  because  the  eighth  day,  that  is  the  first 
after  the  Sabbath,  was  to  be  the  day  on  which  the  Lord  should 
rise,  quicken  us,  and  give  us  the  circumcision  of  the  Spirit,  this 
eighth  day  or  the  first  after  the  Sabbath,  and  the  Lord's  day,  was 
foreshown  in  the  figure,  which  figure  ceased  with  the  realization 
of  its  import,  and  the  bestowal  of  the  spiritual  circumcision."3 
Unlike  some  modern  writers,  the  Clements,  and  others,  do  not 
arrogate  to  the  Church  the  appointment  of  the  weekly  holy  day. 
Let  us  hear  Tertullian,  "  The  apostles  introduced  nothing  at  their 
own  discretion,  but  faithfully  assigned  to  the  people  the  discipline 
which  they  had  received  from  Christ."4 

It  was  the  creed  of  the  Fathers,  that  the  Lord's  day  ought  to  be 
wholly  spent  in  sacred  rest  and  service.  All  ordinary  work  was 
to  be  discontinued  on  that  day.  Tertullian,  in  remarking  on  the 
words,  "  Thou  shalt  do  no  work,"  asks,  "  What  work  ?"  and 
answers,  "  Thine  own,  doubtless.  For  it  follows  that  he  should 
take  away  those  works  from  the  Sabbath,  which  he  had  previously 
indicated  to  belong  to  the  six  days.  Thine  own — that  is,  human 
and  customary  works."5  The  same  writer,  in  contending  for  the 
honours  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  after  mentioning  that  it  was  the 
practice  of  a  very  few  to  abstain  from  kneeling  in  prayer  on 

i  Apol.  I.  ad  fin.  *  Strom,  lib.  vi.  c.  16.  »  Epist.  64. 

*  D»  Prae»eript.  adv.  Hatret.  c.  6.  *  Adv.  Marcion,  lib.  ii.  c.  21. 


CENTURIES  I.-III.  379 

Sabbath — that  is,  Saturday,  says,  "  But  we  ought,  according  to  the 
doctrine  received  by  us,  to  beware  on  the  Lord's  day  alone,  not  of 
that  only" — kneeling  in  prayer — "  but  of  all  anxiety,  deferring 
even  business,  lest  we  should  give  place  in  any  degree  to  the 
devil."1  Like-minded  as  to  the  duty  of  entire  rest  from  work  was 
Origen,  who  remarks,  "  Leaving  the  Jewish  observances,  let  us  see 
how  the  Sabbath  ought  to  be  observed  by  a  Christian.  That 
Sabbatism,  mentioned  Heb.  iv.  9,  is  the  observation  of  the  Sab 
bath,  on  which  no  worldly  actions  ought  to  be  done."2  Not  that 
the  Fathers  supposed  that  sacred  time  was  profaned  by  labour 
in  cases  of  necessity.  When  Tertullian  has  shown,  as  already 
quoted,  that  we  are  not  to  do  our  own  works,  he  adds,  "  But  to 
carry  about  the  Ark,  that  is,  round  the  walls  of  Jericho,  can  seem 
neither  a  daily  work  nor  a  human,  but  a  rare  and  holy  work,  and 
therefore  by  the  very  commandment  of  God  divine."3  "The 
priests,"  says  Irenseus,  "  in  kindling  a  fire  and  slaying  beasts  on 
the  Sabbath-day,  were  not  guilty  of  any  sin."4  That  worldly 
pleasures  were  to  be  shunned,  while  frequently  inculcated  by  the 
later  Fathers  as  one  of  the  duties  of  the  Lord's  day,  is  plainly 
involved  in  the  language  already  quoted.  The  proper  business  of 
that  day,  be  it  further  remarked,  was,  in  the  view  of  these  excel 
lent  men,  the  service  of  God  in  works  of  piety  and  benevolence. 
Origen  not  only  excludes  secular  work  from  the  engagements  of 
the  Sabbath,  as  in  the  words  formerly  adduced,  but  completes  the 
description  of  a  sanctified  day  thus  :  "  If,  therefore,  you  cease 
from  all  worldly  works,  and  execute  nothing  worldly,  but  give 
yourselves  up  to  spiritual  exercises,  repairing  to  church,  attending 
to  sacred  reading  and  instruction,  thinking  of  celestial  things, 
solicitous  for  the  future,  placing  the  judgment  to  come  before  your 
eyes,  not  looking  to  things  present  and  visible,  but  to  those  which 
are  future  and  invisible — this  is  the  observance  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath."5  But  works  of  benevolence  are  to  be  added.  Irenaeus 
shows  that  Christ  in  healing  the  sick  did  nothing  beyond  the  law, 
which  did  not  prohibit  cures  upon  the  Sabbath-day,  or  even 
caring  for  cattle  ;  and  then  draws  the  conclusion,  "  That  the 
true  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  consists  in  doing  works  of 

»  De  Orat.,  c.  23.       *  Horn.  23,  in  Num.       »  Adv.  Martion,  lib.  ii.  c.  SL 
«  Contr.  Patent.,  lib.  iv.  c.  Id.  •  Horn,  23,  In  Num. 


380  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

mercy."1     To  the  same  effect  is  a  chapter  in  Tertullian's  work 
against  Marcion.2 

Let  us,  under  this  topic,  add,  that  the  Fathers,  while  they 
sufficiently  disclaimed  the  Jewish  ceremonies,  have  occasionally 
avowed  their  faith  in  the  substantial  sameness  of  Sabbatic  obliga 
tions  under  the  Jewish  and  Christian  dispensations,  and  that 
several  of  them,  earlier  and  later,  have,  without  dissent  so  far  as 
we  have  seen  on  the  part  of  any,  recognised  the  Fourth  Command 
ment  as  the  abiding  rule  of  the  Christian  holy  day.  Thus  Irenseus  : 
"  Preparing  men  for  a  life  of  holiness,  the  Lord  Himself  with  His 
own  voice  spake  the  words  of  the  Decalogue  alike  to  all  :  these 
commandments,  therefore,  continue  with  us,  extended  and  enlarged, 
not  abolished,  by  his  coming  in  the  flesh.  But  the  ordinances  of 
bondage  he  gave  to  the  people  separately  by  the  voice  of  Moses  ; 
as  Moses  himself  says,  '  And  the  Lord  commanded  me  at  that 
time  to  teach  you  statutes  and  judgments.'  These,  then,  which 
were  given  as  a  yoke  of  bondage,  and  as  a  sign  to  them,  he  has 
blotted  out  by  the  new  covenant  of  liberty."3  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus  held  the  continued  authority  of  the  Decalogue,  from  his 
exposition  of  the  fourth  precept  of  which  we  have  already  extracted 
a  remarkable  sentence  on  the  Sabbatic  institution.  Let  us  add 
another  remark,  which  is,  that  the  Fathers,  with  all  honest  men, 
recognised  in  a  day  devoted  to  the  Divine  service,  a  whole  day. 
The  ancient  tithes  consisted  of  a  tenth  part  of  a  person's  substance, 
which  was  consecrated  to  a  religious  use.  In  like  manner,  when 
a  seventh  day  was  set  apart  to  God,  it  was  one  entire  day  out  of 
the  seven.  The  sacred  half-days — the  intercisi  of  the  heathen, 
had  an  analogy  to  some  of  the  Mosaic  holy  days,  but  not  to 
the  weekly  Sabbath.  When  Dionysius  of  Corinth  said  that  he 
and  the  Church  had  kept  the  Lord's  day,  his  language  means 
that  they  had  kept  the  day  throughout.  Sabbaths,  in  the 
estimate  of  Irenseus,  were  whole  days.  Origen  upbraids  those 
"  who  gave  one  or  two  hours  of  the  day  to  God,  and  came  to 
church  to  prayers,  or  heard  the  Word  of  God  in  passing,  but 
expended  the  remaining  portion  of  it  on  the  world  and  their 
appetites."4 

»  Contr.  Valent.,  lib.  iv.  c.  !».  »  Lib.  iv.  3. 12. 

•  Adv.  Hare*.,  lib.  iv.  o.  31.  *  Horn,  in  Num. 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  381 

There  is  yet  another  part  of  the  Sabbatic  creed,  held  by  the 
early  Christians,  which  deserves  a  concluding  brief  notice.  We 
refer  to  their  high  estimate  of  the  Lord's  day.  They  called  it  the 
first  of  days,  the  chief  of  days,  a  day  of  gladness.  They  honoured 
it  by  standing  in  prayer,  and  by  not  fasting.  They  rose  early 
and  sat  late,  that  they  might  redeem  their  holy  time.  Persecution 
could  not  cool  their  ardent  regard  for  "  the  Lord's  solemnities." 
And  Tertullian  recommends  to  those  who  could  not  celebrate  the 
day  and  its  worship  with  sunshine,  to  meet  for  that  purpose  in 
the  night  season,  which  would  be  "illumined  by  the  light  of 
Christ." 


THE  SABBATH  IN  CENTURIES  IV.-XV. 

The  first  three  centuries  of  ecclesiastical  history  furnish  the 
most  valuable  support  to  the  claims  of  the  weekly  holy  day.  But 
the  subsequent  periods  are  not  wanting  in  scarcely  less  important 
aid  to  the  same  cause.  The  history,  as  it  advances,  multiplies 
the  tests  of  prophetic  truth  relative  to  the  promised  preservation, 
prevalence,  and  blessings  of  the  institution.  We  therefore  pro 
ceed,  though  necessarily  in  a  somewhat  perfunctory  manner,  with 
the  annals  of  the  Sabbath. 


THE  TERMS,    "  FIRST  DAY  OF  THE  WEEK,"    "  LORD'S  DAY,"    AND 
"  SABBATH." 

It  has  already  been  stated,  that  persons  of  widely  different 
opinions  on  the  question  have  contended  for  an  exegesis  of  the 
above-mentioned  names,  which  militates  against  the  generally  re 
ceived  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Sabbath.  Having  produced  some 
of  the  earlier  Christian  writers  as  witnesses  against  such  misinter 
pretations,  let  us  confirm  their  testimony  by  that  of  their  most 
distinguished  successors.  Jerome,  who  will  be  admitted  to  have 
been  no  mean  proficient  in  the  knowledge  of  the  versions  and 
style,  to  say  the  least,  of  the  sacred  writings,  explains  the  words, 
"the  first  day  of  the  week,"  by  the  words,  "  the  Lord's  day."1 

i  "  Per  unam  Sabbati,  hoc  est,  in  die  dominico."     Quoted  by  Beza,  Annot.  In  1  Got 
xvi.  2. 

17* 


382  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

In  expounding  the  verse,  "  And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
when  the  disciples  came  together  to  break  bread,"  Chrysostoin 
observes,  "  It  was  then  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  and  the  Lord's 
day."1  At  a  much  later  time,  the  venerable  Bede  interprets  the 
phrase  as  meaning  the  same  day.  "  The  Sabbath,"  says  Augustine, 
"  is  the  seventh  day,  but  the  Lord's  day,  coming  after  the  seventh, 
must  be  the  eighth,  and  is  also  to  be  reckoned  the  first.  For  it  is 
called  the  first  day  of  the  week  (una  Sabbati)."2  These  words  while 
they  confirm  the  general  belief  in  the  identity  of  the  time  indicated 
by  the  first,  eighth,  and  Lord's  day,  show  that  the  word  Sabbath 
continues  to  be  made  use  of  when  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
the  first  day  of  the  week  from  the  Jewish  Sabbath-day.  But 
various  Fathers  in  the  fourth  century,  including  Augustine  himself, 
repeatedly  apply  the  word,  as  Irenseus  and  Origen  had  done,  to 
the  weekly  sacred  season  of  the  Christian  Church.  Instances  will 
occur  in  subsequent  quotations.  Let  two,  meanwhile,  suffice. 
"We  enjoy,"  says  Hilary,  A.D.  354,  "the  festivity  of  a  perfect 
Sabbath  on  the  eighth,  which  is  also  the  first  day  of  the  week."3 
To  these  accord  the  words  of  Gregory  Nyssen  :  "  Behold  the 
Sabbath,  blessed  for  thee  from  the  beginning ;  mark  by  that 
Sabbath,  the  Sabbath  of  the  present  day,  the  day  of  rest  which 
God  hath  blessed  above  other  days."4  Alexander  of  Hales  might 
have  taken  higher  ground  than  that  in  the  following  sentence  : 
"Because  the  Sabbath-day,  taken  indeterminately,  is  called  the 
day  of  rest,  or  vacation  to  God ;  after  this  manner  the  Lord's 
day  may  be  called  the  Sabbath-day,  without  any  prejudice  of  the 
Christian  name,  or  scandal  of  Christians."5 

DOCTEINES. 

Dr.  Paley,  proceeding  to  answer  what  he  calls  the  main  question 
Involved  in  the  controversy  on  our  subject,  which  is,  "  Whether  the 
command  by  which  the  Jewish  Sabbath  was  instituted,  extend  to 
us  1 "  says,  "  If  the  Divine  command  was  actually  delivered  at  the 
Creation,  it  was  addressed,  no  doubt,  to  the  whole  human  species 
alike,  and  continues,  unless  repealed  by  some  subsequent  revela- 

i  Horn,  in  Acts  xx.  7.  »  In  Ps.  cl.  »  ProZ.  in  Ps. 

«  Omt.  38.  *  Cited  in  Dr.  Tomng's  Dies  Dominica,  p.  26. 


CENTURIES  rv.-xv.  383 

tion,  binding  upon  all  who  come  to  the  knowledge  of  it.  This 
opinion  precludes  all  debate  about  the  extent  of  the  obligation."1 
That  opinion,  or  rather  truth,  of  a  primal  Sabbath,  is  so  trans 
parently  presented  in  the  Sacred  Volume,  as  to  have  gained  the 
general  assent  of  Christian  men.  We  have  to  include  the  Fathers 
of  the  fourth  and  following  centuries  in  the  number.  On  this 
turning  point  they  are  at  one  with  each  other,  and  with  Tertul- 
lian,  Origen,  and  Cyprian.  Thus  writes  Lactantius,  "  God 
completed  the  world,  and  this  admirable  work  of  nature,  in  the 
space  of  six  days,  and  then  consecrated  the  seventh,  from  which 
he  had  rested  from  his  works.  This  is  the  Sabbath-day."2 
Athanasius  expresses  the  conviction,  that  the  things  which  Moses 
taught,  the  same  Abraham  observed,  and  Noah  understood  very 
well.3  " The  first  Sabbath,"  says  Epiphanius,  "from  the  begin 
ning  decreed  and  declared  by  the  Lord  in  the  creation  of  the 
world,  has  revolved  in  its  cycle  of  seven  days  from  that  day  till 
now."4  In  the  preceding  section,  the  words  of  Gregory  Nyssen 
to  the  same  effect  have  been  quoted.  Augustine,  in  his  City  of 
Godt  dates  the  Sabbath  of  eternity  from  the  creation  of  man.5 
The  intimation  of  a  weekly  holy  day  is,  in  a  sentence  afterwards 
to  be  produced,  regarded  by  Chrysostom  as  having  been  divinely 
made  "  from  the  beginning." 6  '  And  Theodoret  says,  "  When 
God  had  made  all  things,  instead  of  creating  on  the  seventh 
day,  He  bestowed  on  it  a  blessing,  lest,  of  the  seven,  that  day 
only  should  be  without  honour."7  As  the  doctrine  continued 
to  pass  current  down  to  the  sixteenth  century,  when  it  was  cor 
dially  embraced  by  Luther,  Calvin,  and  the  other  Reformers,  it 
is  unnecessary  any  further  minutely  to  mark  its  traces  in  the 
history. 

In  the  Christian  Church,  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury,  it  was  the  prevalent  belief  that  the  use  of  the  seventh  day 
as  a  Sabbath  was  set  aside  with  the  dispensation  to  which  it  had 
belonged.  Whatever  regard  was  shown  to  Saturday,  the  feeling 
was  never  among  Christians  of  a  kind  to  compete  with  their  vene 
ration  for  the  Lord's  day.  This  has  been  demonstrated  in  the 

1  Mor.  Phil,  book  iv.  ch.  7.  2  Dlvin.  Instil,  lib.  vii.  o.  14 

8  De  Sab.  et  Circ.  *  Panar.  H&r.  61. 

*  Lib.  rrii.  o.  SO.  «  Horn.  10,  In  Cte.  '  Qwest.  21,  in  Gte. 


384  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOKY. 

learned  works  of  Milton's  tutor  and  Bingham.1  When  attachment 
to  the  seventh  day  was  tending  to  the  dishonour  of  the  first,  the 
Council  of  Laodicea  interfered  to  repress  the  indignity  by  enacting 
as  follows  : — "  Christians  ought  not  to  act  as  Jews,  and  rest  from 
labour  on  the  Sabbath  [Saturday],  but  should  work  on  that  day. 
And,  giving  pre-eminent  honour  to  the  Lord's  day,  they  ought 
then,  if  they  can,  to  rest  from  labour."2  When  it  is  considered 
that  the  canons  of  this  assembly  were  received  by  the  Sixth  (Ecu 
menical  Council  into  the  general  law  of  the  Church,  it  will  be 
allowed  that  the  abrogation  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  has  been  an 
extensively-received  doctrine  among  professed  Christians.  It  is, 
besides,  recognised  in  subsequent  councils,  in  the  legislation  of 
the  period,  and  in  the  works  of  the  Fathers.  No  small  part  of 
these  works  are  devoted  to  the  overthrow  of  the  synagogue  and  all 
its  peculiarities.  "  The  disciples  of  Christ,"  says  Epiphanius, 
when  contending  against  the  Ebionites,  who  kept  both  the  Sab 
bath  and  the  Lord's  day,  "  knew  very  well  from  his  conversation 
with  them,  and  from  his  doctrine  before  his  passion,  that  the 
Sabbath  was  discharged."3  And  both  Chrysostom  and  Theodoret 
consider  "  days,"  in  these  words,  "  Ye  observe  days,  and  months, 
and  times,  and  years  ;  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed 
upon  you  labour  in  vain,"  as  signifying  Jewish  Sabbaths  in  con 
tradistinction  from  the  Lord's  day  of  Christianity.4  But  this 
position  will  receive  further  confirmation  from  the  illustration  of 
the  following. 

That  the  Lord's  day  had,  by  Divine  authority,  been  constituted 
the  weekly  day  of  rest  and  devotion  under  Christianity,  is  another 
of  those  doctrines  which  were  generally  received  in  the  period 
under  review.  According  to  statements  of  the  Fathers  already 
quoted,  the  cycle  of  seven  days  still  revolves,  and  "  God  hath 
blessed  the  Sabbath  of  the  present  day  above  other  days."  Euse- 
bius  thus  writes  :  "  The  Word  [Christ],  by  the  new  covenant,  trans 
lated  and  transferred  the  feast  of  the  Sabbath  to  the  morning  light, 
and  gave  us  the  symbol  of  true  rest — the  Lord's  day,  the  first  of 
the  light,  in  which  the  Saviour  obtained  the  victory  over  death."5 

1  Dies  Dominica,  p.  37,  etc. ;  Antiq.  D.  xx.  ch.  3. 

2  Can.  29,  Condi,  per  Ruel  et  Hartman.  vol.  iii.  p.  254. 

*  Contr.  Bbion.  Hcer.  xxx.  c.  32.        *  In  Gal.  ir.  10.         *  Comment  on  Ps».  xci. 


CENTURIES    IV. -XV.  385 

Referring  to  our  Lord's  appearing  to  his  disciples  when  they 
were  met  together  after  his  resurrection,  Cyril  draws  this  conclu 
sion  :  "  By  right,  therefore,  are  holy  assemblies  held  in  the 
churches  on  the  eighth  day."1  The  Lord's  day  is  by  Gregory 
Nazianzen  called  "  God's  own  day."2  Augustine  declares  that 
"  the  Lord's  day  was  established  by  Christ,"  that  "  there  is  one 
Lord  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  the  Lord's  day,"  that  it  is  "  called  the 
Lord's  day  because  the  Lord  made  it,"  and  that  it  "  seems  pro 
perly  to  belong  to  the  Lord."3  According  to  Chrysostom,  "God 
from  the  beginning  intimates  to  us  the  doctrine,  that  within  the 
compass  of  a  week  one  whole  day  is  to  be  set  apart  to  spiritual 
works."4  In  the  fifth  century,  Maximus,  Bishop  of  Turin,  Sedu- 
lius,  and  Leo  I.,  Bishop  of  Koine,  testify  to  the  same  truth.  We 
quote  the  words  of  Sedulius  : — 

"  Cceperat  interea  post  trifjtia  Sabbata  felix 
Irradiare  dies,  culmenque  nominis  alti 
A  Domino  dominants  trab.it,  primusque  videre 
Promeruit  nasci  mundum,  atque  resurgere  Christum. 
Septima  nam  Genesis  cum  dicit  Sabbata,  claret 
Hunc  orbis  caput  esse  diem,  quern  gloria  regis 
Nunc  etiam  proprii  don  an  s  fulgore  tropsei, 
Primatum  retinere  dedit."6 

The  testimonies  of  writers  in  the  sixth  century — of  Anastasius 
Sinaita,  Gregory  of  Tours,  and  Isidore,  Bishop  of  Seville — har 
monize  with  the  preceding.  It  is  sufficient  to  quote  the  last : 
"  The  apostles  ordained  the  Lord's  day  to  be  kept  with  religious 
solemnity,  because  on  it  our  Redeemer  rose  from  the  dead,  which 
was  therefore  called  the  Lord's  day.6  To  A.D.  601,  belongs 
Hesychius,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  "  author  of  several  productions," 
particularly  a  commentary  on  Leviticus,  in  which  he  says,  "  Fol 
lowing  their  (the  apostles')  tradition,  we  set  apart  the  Lord's  day 
to  Divine  assemblies ;"  and  expresses  the  generally  received  opin 
ion,  that  the  day  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  apostles 
was  the  Lord's  day.7  And  the  venerable  Bede,  who  adorned  the 
eighth  century,  holds  that  "  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day,  after  six 

1  In  Joan,  lib.  xii.  c.  -53.  a  Horn.  1,  in  Pasch. 

»  Epist.  86,  Young's  Dies  Domin.  p.  71.  *  Horn.  10,  in  Ge. 

»  Dt  Remtr.  Carmen,  lib.  v.  *  Opera  (1617),  p.  396.  '  In  L«vit.  lib.  ii.  c.  9. 

2  B 


386  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

days'  working,  was  always  wont  to  be  celebrated,  and  that  the 
Lord's  day  was  the  memorial  of  the  Lord's  resurrection."1  It 
was  in  the  ninth  century  that  Charlemagne  called  five  councils  for 
remedying  the  prevailing  disregard  of  the  Lord's  day,  with  other 
evils  of  the  Church,  and  said,  in  his  edict,  "  We  do  ordain,  as  it  is 
required  in  the  law  of  God,  that  no  man  do  any  servile  work  on  the 
Lord's  day,"  but  that  «  all  come  to  the  church  to  magnify  the  Lord 
their  God  for  those  good  things  which  on  this  day  He  bestowed 
upon  them."2  His  son,  Louis  the  Pious,  several  Popes,  Alfred  the 
Great,  and  Leo  the  Philosopher,  testified,  in  the  same  century,  to 
the  Divine  authority  and  sacred  character  of  the  day.  These 
views,  as  appears  from  the  writings  of  Bernard,  Theophylact, 
Anselm,  P.  Alphonsus,  Alexander  de  Hales,  Aquinas,  Wycliffe, 
from  the  decrees  of  councils,  from  the  edicts  of  princes,  and  the 
Constitutions  of  bishops,  continued  to  prevail  in  the  following  cen 
turies.  Our  space  will  admit  of  only  two  or  three  examples. 
"The  Lord's  day,"  according  to  Anselm,  "signifies  that  true  rest 
which  He  who  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  Lord's  day  now  secures 
and  promises  to  the  saints,  and  therefore  we  do  rest  on  that  day 
from  labour."3  "The  vacation  of  the  Lord's  day,"  says  the 
irrefragable  doctor,  "  is  the  moral  part  of  the  Decalogue  in  the 
time  of  grace,  as  the  seventh  day  was  in  the  time  of  the  law  ;"  and 
again,  "  The  observance  of  a  day  indeterminately,  that  at  some  time 
we  should  attend  on  God,  is  moral  in  nature  and  immutable ;  but 
the  observance  of  a  determinate  time  is  moral  by  discipline — by 
the  adding  of  Divine  institution.  When  that  time  ought  to  be,  is 
not  for  man  to  determine,  but  God."4  We  have  to  add,  that  the 
Waldenses  and  Bohemian  Brethren,  who  bore  testimony  against 
the  growing  errors  and  corruptions  of  the  Church,  acquiesced  in 
her  creed  as  regarded  the  weekly  rest.  Thus,  in  an  explanation 
of  the  Ten  Commandments,  dated  by  Boyer  A.D.  1120,  the  Fourth 
is  held  to  be  the  rule  of  the  Lord's  day  to  Christians.5  The 
Taborites — the  remnant  of  whom,  afterwards  joining  with  a  party 
from  the  Calixtines,  took  the  name  of  Bohemian  Brethren — main 
tained  that  the  faithful  are  not  bound  to  keep  any  festival  but  the 

1  Beda,  Lib.  de  Offic.  3  Morer  On  the  Lard's  Day,  p.  261. 

K  Opera  (1612),  Enar.  in  Apoc.  5.  10.  «  Cited  in  Young's  Dies  Domin.,  p.  46, 

Blair's  Hist,  of  Waldenses,  vol.  i.p,  £20. 


CENTURIES  IT. -XV.  387 

Lord's  day.1  After  that  union,  the  Brethren  took  advantage  of  a 
respite  from  persecution,  about  A.D.  1471,  for  regulating  their 
government  and  discipline,  when  they  declared  "the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  to  be  of  moral  obligation  ;  because  the  seventh  day 
was  sanctified  at  the  Creation,  the  Ten  Commandments  enjoined 
the  Sabbath,  and  in  the  days  of  the  apostles  the  Lord's  day  was 
appointed  instead  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and  therefore  was  not 
ceremonial."2 

PBACTICAL  TEACHINGS. 

On  the  important  subject  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Lord's 
day  ought  to  be  spent,  the  latter  coincide  with  the  earlier  opinions 
of  the  Christian  Church.  Eusebius,  after  mentioning  the  trans 
ference  of  the  Sabbath  and  its  duties  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
observes,  "These  duties  more  appropriately  belong  to  this  day, 
because  it  has  a  precedence,  is  first  in  rank,  and  more  honourable 
than  the  Jewish  Sabbath."  He  continues,  "It  is  delivered  to 
ns  that  we  should  meet  together  on  this  day,  and  it  is  ordered 
that  we  should  do  those  things  announced  in  this  Psalm."3  We 
see  what  idea  of  the  sacredness  of  the  day  Athanasius  entertained, 
when  he  described  "a  multitude  of  soldiers  with  arms,  drawn 
swords,  bows,  and  spears,  proceeding  to  attack  the  people,  though 
it  was  the  Lord's  day."4  Cyril  thus  addressed  his  hearers: 
"  Manual  labour  is  forbidden  on  a  feast-day,  that  you  may  exer 
cise  yourselves  more  entirely  in  Divine  matters."5  The  Council 
of  Laodicea,  while  they  repudiated  the  regular  cessation  of  work 
on  Saturday,  enjoined  abstinence  from  labour  on  the  Lord's  day. 
ID  unison  with  these  sentiments  is  the  language  of  Chrysostom  in 
the  following  exhortation  to  his  flock  :  "  You  ought  not,  when 
you  have  retired  from  the  church  assembly,  to  involve  yourselves 
in  engagements  contrary  to  the  exercises  in  which  you  have  been 
occupied,  but  immediately  on  coming  home  read  the  sacred  Scrip 
tures,  and  call  together  the  family,  wife  and  children,  to  confer 
about  the  things  that  have  been  spoken,  and  after  they  have  been 

i  M'Crie's  Miscell.  Writings,  p.  162.  2  Blair's  Waldenses,  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 

«  in  Comment,  on  Ps.  xci.  (xcii.)  *  Histor.  Tracts  (Oxford,  1843),  p.  192. 

f  Lib.  viii.  c.  5,  in  Joan. 


388  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

more  deeply  and  thoroughly  impressed  upon  the  mind,  then  proceed 
to  attend  to  such  matters  as  are  necessary  for  this  life."1  The  last 
clause  has,  in  the  absence  of  better  arguments,  been  eagerly  laid 
hold  of  to  show  that  the  preacher  approved  of  a  return  to  worldly 
business  after  the  public  and  private  duties  of  religion  had  been 
discharged.  Not  to  mention  the  incompatibility  of  such  a  recom 
mendation  with  the  moral  object  aimed  at  in  the  homily,  if  not  even 
with  the  physical  powers  of  his  hearers,  Chrysostom  has  elsewhere 
stated  enough  to  satisfy  us  that  he  had  no  such  meaning.  In  other 
passages  of  his  works  he  says,  "  The  Lord's  day  hath  rest  and 
immunity  from  toils  ;"2  and  holds  abstinence  from  worldly  affairs 
on  the  day  to  be  "  an  immovable  law."3  To  these  might  be  added 
a  variety  of  statements  by  the  Fathers,  which  imply  their  convic 
tion  that  worldly  pleasures  were  to  be  shunned  at  the  times  sacred 
to  heaven.  We  cite  two  or  three  in  which  that  conviction  is 
clearly  expressed.  "The  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,"  says 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  "  consists  not  in  the  hilarity  of  our  bodies,  nor 
in  the  variety  of  glorious  garments,  nor  in  eatings,  the  fruit  whereof 
we  know  to  be  wantonness,  nor  in  strewing  of  flowers  in  the  way, 
which  we  know  to  be  the  manner  of  the  Gentiles,  but  rather  in 
the  purity  of  the  soul,  and  the  cheerfulness  of  the  mind,  and  pious 
meditations,  as  when  we  use  holy  hymns  instead  of  tabors,  and 
psalms  instead  of  wicked  songs  and  dancings."4  Opposed  though 
Augustine  was  to  secular  work,  he  was  still  more  averse  to  the 
indulgence  of  worldly  pleasure  on  the  Lord's  day.  His  saying, 
"  It  is  better  to  plough  than  to  dance,"  is  well  known.  It  occurs 
in  connexion  with  a  reference  to  the  Jews,  as  in  his  time  spending 
their  Sabbath  in  idleness  and  pleasure  :  "  They  are  at  leisure  for 
trifles,  and  spend  the  Sabbath  in  such  things  as  God  forbids.  Oui 
rest  is  from  evil  works,  theirs  from  good  works.  For  it  is  better 
to  plough  than  to  dance."5  But  it  was  still  better,  in  his  view,  to 
abstain  from  both,  and  to  act  in  the  spirit  of  his  own  words,  "  Let 
us  show  ourselves  Christians  by  keeping  holy  the  Lord's  day."6 
The  same  spirit  breathes  in  the  words  of  Basil,  Gregory  Nazian- 
zen,  and  Chrysostom.  The  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  having  given  as  a 

i  Horn.  5,  in  Matt.  2  Horn.  43,  in  1  Cor.  xvi.  1.  »  Hem.  5,  in  Matt 

*  Quoted  by  Twisse  in  Mor.  of  tlie  Fourth  Commandment,  p.  173. 

*  In  Ps.  xcii.  6  Ad  CasuL,  Eyist.  86. 


CENTURIES  IV.- XV.  389 

reason  for  the  practice  of  standing  in  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day, 
not  only  that  Christians  are  risen  together  with  Christ,  but  that 
the  day  seems  in  some  measure  an  image  of  the  world  to  come, 
adds  :  "  The  Church  instructs  her  disciples  to  offer  their  prayers 
standing,  that  by  being  from  day  to  day  reminded  of  the  life  that 
will  never  end,  we  may  not  neglect  to  make  provision  for  the 
change  of  habitation."1  In  a  similar  spirit  writes  his  friend  of 
Nazianzum  :  "  But  we  who  worship  the  Word  should  find  our 
only  pleasure  in  the  Scriptures,  in  the  Divine  law,  and  in  narrat 
ing  the  events  relative  to  the  feast."2  "The  Sabbath,"  remarks 
Chrysostom,  "is  not  a  day  of  idleness,  but  of  spiritual  action."3 
In  its  duties,  as  in  other  things,  the  weekly  holy  day  has  ever  been 
in  substance  the  same  institution.  The  objection,  that  Moses  and 
Christ  had  different  doctrines,  Augustine  does  not  hesitate  to  re 
pel  with  the  assertion,  "  The  doctrine  was  the  same,  the  difference 
respected  only  the  time."4  Passing  to  later  centuries,  we  find 
that  such  views  continued  to  be  held.  Ca3sarius,  Bishop  of  Aries, 
rebukes  the  impiety  of  Christians  who  do  not  entertain  the  rever 
ence  for  the  Lord's  day  which  the  Jews  appear  to  have  for  their 
Sabbath."  5  The  testimony  of  Colurnba  is  specially  interesting,  as 
it  expresses  the  feelings  of  the  heart  at  a  moment  which  tests  the 
sincerity  of  faith,  and  the  value  of  a  creed  :  "  This  day,"  he  said 
to  his  servant,  "  in  the  Sacred  Volume  is  called  the  Sabbath,  that 
is,  rest ;  and  will  indeed  be  a  Sabbath  to  me,  for  it  is  to  me  the 
last  day  of  this  toilsome  life,  the  day  on  which  I  am  to  rest  (sab- 
batize)  after  all  my  labours  and  troubles,  for  on  this  coming  sacred 
night  of  the  Lord  (Dominica  nocte),  at  the  midnight  hour,  I  shall, 
as  the  Scriptures  speak,  go  the  way  of  my  fathers."6  According 
to  Isidore  of  Spain,  "  the  observance  of  the  apostolic  institution, 
with  religious  solemnity,"  is  to  "  rest  on  that  day  from  all  earthly 
acts,  and  the  temptations  of  the  world,  that  we  may  apply  our 
selves  to  God's  holy  worship,  giving  this  day  due  honour  for  the 
hope  of  the  resurrection  we  have  therein."7  Aquinas  held  that 
"  such  a  day  was  appointed  not  for  play,  but  for  praise  and 
prayer. "8  And  in  harmony  on  this  subject,  with  good  men  of 

i  De  Spirit.  Sanct.  e.  27.  a  Orat.  38.          »  De  Laz.  Cone.  1. 

*  Contr.  Faust,  lib.  xvi.  c.  28.  *  Horn.  12.         «  Life,  by  Adamna  (1857),  p.  230, 

*  Opera,  p.  396.  8  Qpusc.  de  Prcec.t  10. 


390  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOKY. 

every  age  and  clime,  was  Wycliffe,  who,  in  his  Exposition  of  the 
Decalogue,  remarks  on  the  precept  concerning  the  Sabbath-day, 
that  this  day  should  be  kept  by  "  three  manners  of  occupations, 
1st,  In  thinking, — how  God  is  Almighty,  All-knowing,  All-good, 
All-just,  All-merciful — and  thinking,  that  creation  was  completed 
on  that  day,  that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  on  that  day,  that 
knowledge  and  wisdom  came  to  the  earth  by  the  descent  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  on  that  day,  and  that  on  that  day,  as  many  clerks  say,  shall 
be  doom's-day,  for  Sunday  was  the  first  day,  and  Sunday  shall  be 
the  last  day."  He  concludes  an  exhortation  to  his  reader,  to 
"  bethink "  him  of  redemption,  with  the  words,  "  It  should  be  full 
sweet  and  delightful  to  us,  to  think  thus  on  this  great  kindness, 
and  this  great  love  of  Jesus  Christ."  2d,  In  speaking, — speaking 
in  confession  of  sin  to  God,  in  "  crying  heartily  to  God,  for  grace 
and  power  to  leave  all  sin,  and  ever  after  to  live  in  virtue,"  and 
in  urging  neighbours  to  better  living.  3d,  In  carefully  attending 
public  worship, — preparing  for  it  by  endeavouring  to  bring  to  it 
pure  motives,  and  by  avoiding  indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of  the 
table,  that  the  mind  may  be  in  its  best  state  for  performing 
the  duties  of  the  day,  and  following  up  the  services  of  the  house 
of  God,  by  visiting  the  sick  and  the  infirm,  and  relieving  the  poor 
with  our  goods.  "And  so,"  he  adds,  "men  should  not  be  idle, 
but  busy  on  the  Sabbath-day  about  the  soul,  as  men  are  on  the 
week-day  about  the  body."1 

ECCLESIASTICAL  MEASURES. 

The  means  employed  by  the  Church  in  centuries  iv.-xv. 
for  restraining  the  abuse  and  promoting  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day,  though  liable  to  exception  in  several  particulars,  con 
cur  with  contemporary  writings  in  showing  that  the  institu 
tion  continued  to  be  generally  regarded  as  of  Divine  appoint 
ment  and  sacred  obligation.  Minute  detail  here  would  not 
be  necessary,  were  it  practicable.  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the 
leading  facts. 

„  From  a  list  before  us,  admitting,  probably,  of  considerable  en 
largement,  it  appears  that,  during  the  above-mentioned  centuries, 

1  Tracts  and  Treatises  of  John  de  Wycliffe,  pp.  4-6. 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  391 

no  fewer  than  about  seventy  councils  and  synods  recognised  the 
weekly  holy  day  as  a  Christian  ordinance,  most  of  them  adopting 
canons  on  its  behalf.  These  conventions  extended  over  the  whole 
period,  there  having  been  no  century  in  which  some  assemblage 
of  the  clergy  did  not  express  respect  for  the  Lord's  day ;  and 
they  were  spread  over  the  then  known  world,  particularly 
Europe.  They  were  attended  by  the  most  eminent  ecclesias 
tics,  and  from  the  number  as  well  as  from  the  character  of 
the  members,  their  canons  may  be  considered  as  among  the 
best  means  of  ascertaining  the  state  of  opinion  at  their  respec 
tive  dates.  To  these  collective  indications  of  the  general  doctrine 
respecting  the  institution,  and  to  the  united  measures  adopted 
to  promote  its  better  observance,  we  have  to  add  the  services 
rendered  in  both  respects  to  its  cause  by  the  ministers  of  re 
ligion  in  their  several  charges,  by  the  Fathers,  as  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  and  Chrysostom,  and  by  such  men  as  Ecgbright, 
Egbert,  and  Alcuin. 

Both  councils  and  individuals  exerted  themselves  from  time  to 
time  to  remedy  indolent  neglect  in  reference  to  the  Lord's  day. 
The  twenty-first  canon  of  the  Council  of  Eliberis  (A.D.  305)  or 
dained  that,  for  absence  from  church  three  successive  Lord's  days, 
a  layman  should  be  temporarily  excluded  from  communion.  In 
347,  the  council  of  Sardica  decreed  that  no  bishop  should  be  per 
mitted  to  be  absent  from  his  church  for  more  than  three  weeks  ; 
and  the  Council  in  Trullo  (A.D.  691),  combining  the  two  canons, 
enacted  that  a  clergyman,  unnecessarily  absent  from  his  own  church 
more  than  three  Lord's  days,  should  be  deposed,  and  a  similarly 
negligent  layman  cut  off  from  communion. 1  One  great  object, 
indeed,  of  the  councils,  and  of  bishops  in  their  respective  spheres, 
was  to  secure  the  attendance  of  the  people  in  the  house  of  God  ; 
and  in  their  canons  and  constitutions  they  sometimes  descended  to 
such  particulars  as  that  the  hearers  should  remain  to  the  close  of 
the  service. 

Secular  labour  on  the  Lord's  day  was  inhibited.     Husbandry 

i  Our  facts  have  been  derived  from  several  works  on  the  councils  ;  but  to  save  a 
multitude  of  references,  we  may  state,  that  in  Neale's  Feasts  and  Fasts,  and  Morer  on 
the  Lord's  Day,  may  be  found  the  chief  heads  of  what  relates  to  our  subject,  with  the 
authorities. 


392  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

in  its  various  operations,  all  mechanical  works,  merchandise,  and 
unnecessary  travelling,  were  forbidden.  Legal  proceedings  must 
"  cease  and  determine."  No  folkmote  or  political  assembly  must 
hold.  Marriages  were  not  to  be  solemnized,  criminals  were  not  to 
be  executed.  In  a  word,  persons,  of  whatever  country  or  quality, 
were  required  to  forbear  servile  work,  that  they  might  have  leisure 
for  the  worship  of  God. 

Worldly  amusements,  moreover,  were  condemned.  We  meet 
with  frequent  denunciations  against  the  exhibitions  and  encpurage- 
rnent  of  theatrical  shows  and  dancings,  as  well  as  against  hunting 
and  various  pastimes,  on  the  sacred  day.  When  the  Bulgarians 
sent  questions  on  this  and  other  matters  to  Pope  Nicholas,  in  A.D. 
858,  his  reply  was,  "That  they  should  desist  from  all  secular 
work  and  carnal  pleasure,  or  whatever  contributed  to  defile  the 
body  ;  and  do  nothing  but  what  was  suitable  to  the  day."  Dun- 
stan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  did  himself  honour  by  issuing  a 
special  order,  that  "  King  Edgar  should  not  continue  to  hunt  on 
the  Lord's  day." 

Such  things  were  enjoined  as  included  or  furthered  the  positive 
duties  of  the  day.  Instruction  by  regularly  officiating  incumbents 
in  churches,  or,  in  their  indispensable  absence,  by  substitutes,  was 
provided.  All  vicars  were  required,  even  at  so  late  a  time  in 
media3val  history  as  1360,  to  read  the  word  of  God  to  the  people 
in  their  own  language.  Repeatedly  do  we  find  more  frequent 
communicating  urged  as  a  means  of  promoting  Sabbatic  observ 
ance.  With  the  same  view,  councils  defined  the  time  of  holy 
rest,  and  exhorted  the  people  to  be  present  at  the  public  worship 
of  Saturday.  One  peculiar  arrangement  was,  that  "  the  arch 
deacon,  or  some  other  dignitary,  should  take  special  care  that  all 
prisoners,  every  Lord's  day,  might  be  well  relieved  in  what  their 
necessities  called  for."  The  following  is  a  specimen  of  a  synodi- 
cal  decree  on  the  manner  of  observing  the  day.  The  bishops 
assembled  at  Friuli,  in  Italy,  thus  resolved  :  "  That  all  people 
shall  with  due  reverence  and  devotion  honour  the  Lord's  day, 
beginning  on  the  evening  of  the  day  before,  and  that  thereon 
they  more  especially  abstain  from  all  kinds  of  sin,  as  also 
from  all  carnal  acts,  and  secular  labours  :  and  that  they  go 
to  church  in  a  grave  manner,  laying  aside  all  suits  of  law  and 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  393 

controversies,  which  might  hinder  their  praising  God's  name  to 
gether." 

The  good  men  of  those  days  were  urgent,  if  not  always  wise, 
in  the  arguments  and  inducements  employed  by  them  for  the  ac 
complishment  of  their  object.  In  not  a  few  instances  they  pro 
perly  confined  themselves  to  their  own  spiritual  province,  the  ad 
ministration  of  the  truth,  law,  and  discipline  of  Christ.  But  in  too 
many  others,  they  called  in  the  help  of  the  weapons  that  are  car 
nal.  Pecuniary  fines  were  exacted.  The  man  who  used  his  cattle 
in  customary  work  forfeited  an  ox  or  a  team.  Stripes  constituted, 
in  certain  cases,  the  punishment  of  the  Sabbath-breaker.  Nay, 
the  partial  loss  of  patrimony,  and  degradation  to  slavery,  were  in 
flicted  according  to  circumstances.  These  were  mistaken  awards 
of  clergy  and  councils  to  the  violaters  of  Christian  institutions  and 
laws.  But  the  men  who  thus  punished  offenders,  proved  at  least 
their  conviction  of  the  enormity  of  the  offence.  It  is  more  pleas 
ant  to  mark  "  the  more  excellent  way"  of  religious  argument  and 
appeal,  when  the  authorities  refer  the  people  to  "  the  law  of  God," 
as  demanding  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's  day,  when  they  en 
treat  their  observance  of  it  by  a  regard  to  "  the  reverence  and 
rest  of  the  Lord's  resurrection,"  when  they  remind  them  of  the 
Divine  example,  and  when,  with  Bishop  Riculphus,  they  complain 
"  That  some  people  made  no  conscience  of  going  to  market,  and 
doing  such  other  things  on  the  Lord's  day  as  all  laws  human  and 
Divine  forbade  them  to  do,"  and  like  him  decree,  that  "  All 
imaginable  care  shall  be  taken  to  redress  and  put  a  stop  to  those 
ungodly  courses,  as  being  a  great  folly  and  shame,  that  any  Chris 
tian  should  so  overlook  the  day  which  is  the  memorial  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  and  our  redemption  by  him,  and  so  eagerly  pursue 
his  worldly  gain  at  a  time  when  he  ought  to  be  employed  in  holy 
offices  for  God's  honour,  and  the  good  of  his  own  soul,  and  theirs 
belonging  to  him." 

Nor  was  it  forgotten  to  warn  Christians  against  a  formal  and 
superstitious  Sabbat  ism.  While  they  were  to  abstain  from  rural 
works,  and  this  world's  and  their  own  pleasures,  "  they  were  to 
be  filled  with  spiritual  joys,  and  busily  vacant  with  all  their  heart 
in  unwearied  praises."  When  some  had  conceived  that  no  work 
whatever  was  to  be  done,  they  were  reminded  that  it  was  lawful 


394  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

to  ride,  to  dress  victuals,  and  to  do  what  concerned  the  neat 
ness  of  the  body  or  of  the  house.  How  remote  from  superstition 
and  mere  form,  and  yet  how  true  and  just  the  representation  of 
Theodulph,  Bishop  of  Orleans  :  "  Such  is  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's 
day,  that  nothing  should  be  done  in  it  except  religious  and  neces 
sary  exercises  ;  for  if  liberty  be  given  of  sailing  and  travelling,  it 
must  only  be  in  cases  of  necessity,  and  so  as  not  to  interfere  with 
public  worship.  Every  Christian  should  go  to  the  house  of  God, 
early  and  late,  and  avoid  improper  conversation  on  the  way. 
We  should  have  leisure  only  for  God,  in  holy  exercises  and  bene 
volence,  and  in  the  praises  of  the  Lord  with  our  friends.  As  for 
our  feasting,  it  is  to  be  spiritual  with  our  neighbours  and  with 
strangers." 

LEGISLATION. 

In  March,  A.D.  321,  Constantino  issued  a  decree  that  all  should 
rest  on  the  venerable  day  of  the  Sun,  with  the  exception  of  those 
engaged  in  husbandry,  who  were  allowed  to  attend  to  the  work 
of  their  calling.  In  June  of  the  same  year  he  renewed  the  order, 
with  the  additional  exception,  of  such  actions  as  concerned  the  libe 
ration  of  prisoners,  and  the  manumission  of  slaves.  The  Lord's 
day  was  to  be  consecrated  to  prayer.  Christian  soldiers  were 
allowed  freely  to  frequent  the  churches,  and  there  without  moles 
tation  offer  up  their  prayers  to  God.  Others  of  the  army  "  who 
had  not  tasted  the  sweetness  of  Divine  knowledge,"  he  com 
manded  to  repair  to  the  fields,  and  join  together  in  acts  of  devo 
tion.  He  even  prescribed  a  form  of  prayer,  which  he  required  all 
his  soldiers  to  use  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  in  their  daily 
worship.  Governors  of  provinces  were  instructed  to  observe  the 
Lord's  day.  All  were  likewise  enjoined  to  honour  other  holidays 
and  feasts  of  the  Church  ;  but  the  same  abstinence  from  labour 
was  not  made  imperative  on  such  occasions. 

It  may  in  this  place  be  remarked,  that  important  evidence  in 
favour  of  the  institution  can  be  extracted  from  edicts  of  the  civil 
powers,  as  also  from  the  canons  of  councils,  while  both  may  have 
been  connected  with  objectionable  measures.  When  Constantino 
could  not  be  neutral  as  to  the  Lord's  day — when  for  him  not  to 


CENTUEIES  IV. -XV.  395 

hold  and  obey  the  Sabbatic  law  must  have  involved  the  rejection 
and  transgression  of  a  Divine  commandment,  and  the  refusal  of  a 
provision  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  empire — it  was  right 
and  good  that  he  determined  to  recognise  and  protect  the  weekly 
holy  day.  But  this  proceeding  on  his  part,  and  as  followed  in 
other  cases,  may  be  pleaded  as  a  strong  testimony  to  the  value 
and  necessity  of  the  institution,  by  those  who  hold  that  the  magis 
trate  has  no  right  to  sanction  holy  days  of  human  appointment, 
to  permit  agricultural  or  other  secular  labour  on  the  day  of  rest 
and  worship,  or  to  compel  his  subjects  to  perform  those  devotional 
services  which  lie  out  of  the  legitimate  reach  and  power  of  civil 
authority. 

Constantine  died  in  A.D.  337.  After  the  intervening  reigns  of 
his  three  sons,  his  nephew,  Julian,  ascended  the  throne,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  restore  idolatry.  Even  he,  as  we  have  had  repeated 
occasion  to  remark,  gave  evidence,  however  unwittingly,  in  favour 
of  Christianity  and  its  weekly  holy  day,  by  introducing  into  his 
Pagan  system  improvements  borrowed  from  the  Christian  worship. 
The  following  emperors — Valentinian,  Gratian,  Valentinian  IL, 
and  Honorius,  in  the  west,  with  Valens,  Theodosius  the  Great, 
Arcadius,  Theodosius  IL,  in  the  east — issued  edicts,  designed  re 
spectively  to  prohibit  certain  law  proceedings,  and  to  put  an  end 
to  theatrical  exhibitions  on  the  Lord's  day.  In  one  of  these  laws 
the  words  occur,  "  the  day  of  the  sun,  which  our  fathers  rightly 
called  the  Lord's  day."  From  another  we  cite  the  following 
sentence  :  "  Nor  let  any  man  think  himself  obliged  in  honour 
and  reverence  to  us  " — when  the  anniversaries  of  his  birth  and 
accession  to  the  throne  happened  to  fall  on  such  days — "  to 
neglect  the  sacred  religion  and  business  of  the  day,  and  apply 
himself  to  public  diversions  ;  for  let  him  not  doubt,  that  we 
look  upon  ourselves  as  then  best  served  and  honoured  when  the 
excellencies  of  the  great  God  and  his  mercies  to  mankind  are 
most  devoutly  celebrated."  The  Emperors  Leo  and  Anthemius 
(A.D.  460)  prohibited  worldly  pleasures,  as  well  as  law  proceed 
ings,  on  the  Lord's  day,  under  the  penalty  that  the  offender,  if 
having  a  place  under  government,  should  lose  it,  and  forfeit  his 
estate.  There  followed  enactments  by  Theodoric  the  Great,  seve 
ral  kings  of  France,  Ina,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  and  Withred, 


396  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

king  of  Kent,  all  having  for  their  object  to  prevent  the  desecn 
tion  of  the  day  of  rest  by  secular  business  or  labour.  Chaiie 
magrie,  benefiting  by  the  advice  of  Alcuin,  evinced  special  zeal  in. 
calling  councils  for  the  reformation  of  abuses  connected  with  the 
Lord's  day  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  though  he  punished 
the  disturbers  of  worship  with  death,  he  on  several  occasions 
affixed  no  penalty  to  the  neglect  of  religious  ordinances  or  to  the 
desecration  of  sacred  time,  leaving  these  offences  to  be  dealt  with 
by  the  ecclesiastical  power.  In  his  edict  calling  five  councils,  in 
A.D.  813,  he  has  these  words  :  "  We  ordain,  as  it  is  required  in 
the  law  of  God,  that  no  man  do  any  servile  work  on  the  Lord's 
day," — of  which  a  variety  of  examples  are  given, — but  that 
men  and  women  "  come  all  to  the  church  to  magnify  the  Lord 
their  God  for  those  good  things  which  on  this  day  he  bestowed 
on  them."  His  son,  Louis  the  Pious,  walked  in  his  steps  ;  and, 
aware  how  much  depended  on  the  example  of  persons  in  superioi 
station,  put  forth  the  following  decree  :  "  It  is  necessary  that, 
in  the  first  place,  priests,  kings,  and  princes,  and  all  the  faithful, 
should  most  devoutly  exhibit  a  due  observance  and  reverence  of 
this  day." 

Alfred  the  Great  was  the  ornament  of  the  closing  years  of  the 
ninth  century,  as  Charlemagne  was  the  distinction  of  its  com 
mencement,  and  of  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding.  One  of  his 
laws,  in  876,  while  appointing  penalties  for  offences  on  the  Lord's 
day  and  certain  holidays,  declared  that  "  among  the  festivals,  this 
day  ought  more  especially  to  be  solemnly  kept,  because  it  was  the 
day  wherein  our  Saviour,  Christ,  overcame  the  devil."  In  the 
same  centuiy  was  issued  the  well-known  edict  of  the  Emperor  Leo, 
"  the  Philosopher,"  which,  affer  mentioning  that  the  Lord's  day 
was  to  be  honoured  with  rest  from  labour,  and  that  he  had  seen 
a  law  (Constantino's)  which,  restraining  some  works  but  permit 
ting  others,  did  dishonour  to  the  day,  proceeds  as  follows  :  "  It  is 
our  will  and  pleasure,  according  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  of  the  apostles  by  Him  directed,  that  on  that  sacred 
day,  whereon  we  were  restored  to  our  integrity,  all  men  should 
rest  themselves  and  cease  from  labour,  neither  the  husbandman 
nor  others  putting  their  hand  that  day  to  prohibited  work.  For 
if  the  Jews  did  so  much  reverence  their  Sabbath,  which  was  only 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  397 

a  shadow  of  ours,  are  not  we,  who  inhabit  light  and  the  truth  of 
grace,  obliged  to  honour  that  day  which  the  Lord  hath  honoured, 
and  hath  therein  delivered  us  both  from  dishonour  and  from 
death  ?  Are  not  we  bound  to  keep  it  singularly  and  inviolably, 
sufficiently  contented  with  a  liberal  grant  of  all  the  rest,  and  not 
encroaching  on  that  one  which  God  hath  chosen  for  his  service  ] 
Nay,  were  it  not  a  reckless  slighting  and  contemning  of  all  reli 
gion  to  make  that  day  common,  and  think  we  may  do  thereon  as 
we  do  on  others  T'1  Athelstan  and  Edgar,  Edward  the  Elder, 
and  the  Emperor  Otho,  in  the  tenth  century ;  Ethelred,  Canute, 
and  Edward  the  Confessor,  in  the  eleventh  ;  Manuel  Comnenus  and 
Henry  IL,  in  the  twelfth  ;  the  Parliament  at  Scone  and  Henry  in., 
in  the  thirteenth  •  Edward  in.  in  the  fourteenth  ;  and  Henry  vi., 
with  Edward  rv.,  in  the  fifteenth, — are  all  recorded  to  have 
employed  their  authority  to  maintain  the  observance  of  the  weekly 
rest.  An  order  issued  in  the  fifteenth  century  by  Catworth,  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  in  concurrence  with  the  Common  Council, 
was  more  worthy  of  the  cause  than  some  royal  decrees.  Refer 
ring  only  to  the  Lord's  day,  it  required  "that  no  manner  of  com 
modities  be  within  the  freedom  bought  or  sold  on  Lord's  days, 
neither  provision  nor  any  other  thing  ;  and  that  no  artificer  should 
bring  his  ware  unto  any  man  to  be  worn  or  occupied  that  day." 

ASCENDENCY. 

The  history  of  Christendom,  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
to  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  presents  a  variety  of  facts 
illustrative  of  the  peculiar  importance  which  continued  to  be 
attached  to  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

One  of  the  evidences  of  this  feeling  is  discovered  in  certain 
things  which  were  to  be  done  on  that  day.  If  the  Church  mado 
too  much  of  the  circumstance  of  posture  in  prayer,  her  insisting 
that  on  the  Lord's  day  her  members  should  stand  up  in  perform 
ing  the  duty,  proved  the  honour  in  which  the  day  was  held  as  a 
memorial  of  a  completed  and  accepted  redemption.  Early  in  the 
fourth  centmy  (A.D.  -306),  Peter,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  informs  us, 
that  the  Christians  did  not  kneel  in  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day,  as 

1  H«ylyn's  Hist,  of  the.  Sab.,  Part  ii.  p.  140. 

IS 


398  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

that  was  a  day  of  rejoicing,  because  on  it  Jesus  Christ  was  raised 
from  the  dead.1  The  celebrated  Council  of  Nice  (A.D.  325),  at 
tended  by  no  fewer  than  318  bishops,  and  by  Athanasius,  pro 
nounced  against  kneeling  in  prayer  on  that  day.  This,  too,  was 
eminently  and  usually  the  day  of  the  communion.  It  was  also  the 
day  on  which  Easter  was,  after  some  time,  universally  celebrated,  as 
well  as  the  sentence  of  excommunication  pronounced. 

Another  token  of  special  respect  for  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  exclusion  of  certain  other  things  from  the 
services  of  the  day.  Abstinence  from  labour  came  to  be  required 
on  holidays  as  well  as  on  the  Lord's  day ;  but  it  is  worthy  of 
notice,  that  this  practice  was  not  enjoined  by  any  eastern  law  for 
the  first  seven  centuries,  though  in  the  west  it  was  otherwise.2 
Fasting,  which,  so  far  as  we  have  observed,  was  not  forbidden  to 
be  practised  on  holidays,  and  was  excluded  from  Saturdays  in  the 
east,  though  required  in  the  west,  was  held  to  be  dishonouring  to 
the  Lord's  day,  and  frequently  declared  to  involve  the  severest 
censures  of  the  Church.  The  guilty  person,  if  a  clergyman,  was 
to  be  deposed, — if  a  layman,  to  be  excommunicated.  "  Let  him," 
it  is  said  "  be  anathema."  The  west  and  east  agreed  in  except 
ing  the  Lord's  days  from  the  period  of  fasting,  whatever  might 
be  its  length.3  Litanies,  also,  fixed  for  a  particular  day,  were 
deferred  when  that  day  was  a  Sunday. 

We  see  in  the  preparations  that  were  to  be  made  for  the  proper 
observance  of  the  day,  how  sacredly  it  was  regarded.  Thus,  in  a 
Council  at  Croy,  in  Spain,  it  was  agreed  that  'all  Christians 
should  be  admonished  every  Saturday  evening  to  go  to  church  by 
way  of  preparation  for  the  Lord's  day."  Directions  are  repeat 
edly  given  to  begin  the  observance  of  the  day  on  the  previous 
evening.  Kings  and  councils,  in  a  number  of  instances,  decreed 
that  the  weekly  rest  should  extend  from  noontide  of  Saturday  to 
Monday  morning. 

The  manifold  and  persevering  exertions  put  forth  for  the  up 
holding  and  observance  of  the  weekly  holy  day,  declare  the  esteem 
in  which  it  was  held.  It  employed,  we  have  seen,  the  care  of 
many  councils  and  synods.  The  dignitaries  of  the  Church  werr 

1  Dupin's  Ecd.  Writers,  vol.  ii.  p.  28. 

«  Neale's  Feast*  and  Fasts,  p.  10L  •  Ibid.  p.  31L 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  399 

often  engaged  in  framing  canons  for  its  better  observance.  Authors 
commended  it  to  their  readers.  The  pulpit  poured  out  eloquent 
tributes  to  its  excellence,  and  urgent  appeals  on  its  behalf.  Princes 
and  inferior  magistrates  acknowledged  its  Divine  claims,  and  felt 
its  value  as  a  beneficent  institution.  That  was  regarded  as  no 
common  or  trifling  matter,  for  the  neglect  and  contempt  of  which 
men  were  deposed  from  the  ministry,  expelled  from  the  church, 
subjected  to  corporal  chastisement,  deprived  of  patrimony,  or  re 
duced  to  serfdom.  And  we  have  to  add,  that  the  resort  to  more 
remarkable,  if  less  injurious  measures  in  the  cause,  was  significant 
of  the  importance  supposed  to  belong  to  it.  The  story  of  an  ap 
parition  said  to  be  seen  by  Henry  n.  of  England,  and  charging 
him  to  have  no  servile  work  done  throughout  his  dominions  on 
the  Lord's  day,  except  what  concerned  the  provision  of  meat  and 
drink,  that  so  he  might  succeed  in  all  his  affairs,  and  of  his  mis 
fortunes  in  consequence  of  neglecting  the  mandate,  has  a  meaning 
and  use  to  the  extent  of  indicating  the  opinion,  that  the  day  was 
the  charge  of  Heaven,  and  that  its  sacred  observance  was  con 
nected  with  human  prosperity  and  happiness.  The  same  lesson 
is  taught  by  the  case  of  Eustachius,  Abbot  de  Flay,  in  the  follow 
ing  century.  This  ardent  person  preached  from  city  to  city,  and 
from  place  to  place,  throughout  England,  forbidding  the  holding 
of  markets  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Many  entered  into  his 
views,  but  their  undue  zeal  in  overturning  the  booths  and  stalls 
of  those  who  persisted  in  the  practice,  led  the  king  and  council  to 
cite  and  fine  them  for  disorderly  proceedings.  The  Abbot,  then, 
produced  what  he  called  a  mandate  from  Heaven  for  the  strict  ob 
servance  of  the  Lord's  day,  in  which  various  calamities  were  de 
nounced  on  those  who  did  not  keep  that  day  and  the  festivals  of 
the  saints.  The  same  warrant  was  produced  and  read  in  a  Scot 
tish  Council  of  A.D.  1203,  when  the  King,  with  consent  of  his 
Parliament,  passed  it  into  a  law,  that  Saturday  from  noon  was  to 
be  counted  holy,  and  that  the  people  were  to  engage  in  holy 
actions,  going  to  sermons  and  the  like,  from  that  time  till  Monday 
morning,  or  be  subjected  to  a  penalty.  It  appears,  however,  that 
a  relaxation  of  this  law,  so  far  as  regarded  fishing,  was  made  by 
Alexander  in.  in  a  Parliament  at  Scone  in  1214,  and  confirmed 
afterwards  by  James  T.,  the  prohibition  of  such  work  being  limited 


4:00  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

to  the  time  between  the  evening  of  Saturday  and  sunrise  of 
Monday. 

We  have  been  pleading  certain  facts  as,  notwithstanding  the 
enthusiasm  and  other  evils  mixed  up  with  them,  contributing  to 
prove  that  the  Sabbatic  institution  has  a  testimony  in  the  heart 
even  of  a  degenerate  Christian  society.  And  we  will  take  the 
liberty  of  making  use  of  another  fact  for  the  same  purpose. 
Holidays  have  no  warrant  in  Scripture,  and  have  contributed 
sadly  to  foster  superstition  and  immorality.  And  yet,  usurpers 
though  they  are  of  Sabbatic  rights,  and  detrimental  to  Sabbatic 
objects,  they  had  their  origin  in  the  recognised  authority  and  felt 
benefit  of  the  only  true  holy  day.  It  was  in  the  more  advanced 
stage  of  human  festivals  and  feasts  that  a  class  arose,  who  made 
use  of  them  for  upholding  despotism  and  an  overbearing  hierarchy, 
and  for  attempting  the  subversion  of  the  Lord's  day.  In  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Church,  Christians,  desirous  of  recalling  the 
various  facts  in  a  religion  which  they  reverenced  and  loved,  and 
finding  spiritual  profit  and  pleasure  in  the  duties  of  a  stated  season 
of  worship,  sought,  in  the  multiplication  of  memorial  times,  and 
of  their  attendant  devotions,  to  do  honour  to  the  birth,  death,  and 
ascension,  as  had  been  done  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  to 
augment  their  own  spiritual  advantage  and  pleasure.  This  was 
well  meant,  but  it  involved  the  great  error  of  being  wise  above 
\vhat  is  written — the  evil  of  being  righteous  overmuch.  It  was 
a  testimony,  however,  to  the  heavenly  and  good  institution,  as 
the  counterfeit  is  to  the  genuine  and  valuable  coin. 

The  doctrine  of  Divine  judgments,  as  attending  the  violation  of 
Divine  laws,  has  frequently  been  supposed  to  be  the  peculiarity, 
and  merited  reproach  of  the  Puritans.  The  history  of  the  Church, 
however,  reveals  it  as  a  doctrine  of  Fathers,  Prelates,  and  even  of 
Popes.  It  was  held  by  Gregory  of  Tours.1  Pope  Eugemus,  ob 
serving  that  certain  persons,  especially  women,  spent  their  time 
in  dancing  and  singing,  gave  directions  to  a  Synod,  held,  about 
A.D.  826,  at  Rome,  "That  the  parish  priest  should  from  time  to 
time  admonish  such  oifen&ers,  and  desire  them  to  go  to  church 
and  offer  prayers,  lest  otherwise  they  might  bring  some  great 
calamity  on  themselves  and  others."  The  Pope  had  a  conviction 

'  Heylyn's  Hist,  of  thf  Sab.,  Part  ii.  pp.  113,  114. 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  401 

that  the  neglect  of  Divine  institutions  exposed  men  to  disasters. 
Nor  was  the  conviction  rare.  At  a  Provincial  Council  held  at 
Paris,  about  A.D.  829,  under  Louis  and  Lotharius,  Emperors,  the 
prelates  complained  that  the  Lord's  day  was  not  kept  with  the  re 
verence  becoming  religion  and  the  practice  of  their  forefathers ; 
"which,"  they  add,  "was  the  reason  that  God  had  sent  several 
judgments  on  them,  and  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  punished 
some  people  for  slighting  and  abusing  it."  In  confirmation  of  this 
statement,  they  refer  to  cases  known  to  many  of  them,  and  heard 
of  by  others,  of  several  countrymen  following  their  husbandry  on 
this  day,  who  had  been  killed  with  lightning,  or  had  miserably  per 
ished  under  convulsions,  "  whereby  it  is  apparent  how  high  the 
displeasure  of  God  was  upon  their  neglect  of  this  day."  We  ad 
duce  these  views  and  instances,  not  as  showing  that  profanation  of 
the  Lord's  day  is  sometimes  visited  with  remarkable  expressions  of 
the  Divine  wrath,  though  of  this  position  there  is  ample  proof,  but 
as  another  evidence  of  the  solemn  importance  which,  in  the  times 
to  which  the  facts  belong,  was  attached  to  the  institution. 

We  have  to  mention  the  language  in  which  the  Lord's  day  is 
spoken  of  as  yet  another  proof  of  our  position.  The  frequent  ap 
plication  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  in  the  writings  and  enact 
ments  of  the  time,  of  such  expressions  as  "  the  venerable  day  of 
the  sun,"  "the  chief  of  the  festivals,"  "the  feast  of  feasts,"  "the 
beginning  of  our  life,"  "the  primate,"  "the  queen,"  "the  first 
and  chief"  of  days,  "the  regal  day,"  "the  day  which  is  better 
than  all  other  days,  common  or  festive,"  evinces  the  high  and 
peculiar  regard  which  was  entertained  for  the  sacred  season.  The 
Emperors  Leo  ancfr  Anthemius  speak  of  the  Lord's  day  as  "  ever 
honourable  and  worthy  of  veneration  ;"  and  Alfred  the  Great,  we 
have  seen,  declares,  in  a  law  on  the  subject,  that  among  the  festi 
vals  the  Lord's  day  more  especially  ought  to  be  solemnly  kept, 
because  it  was  the  day  wherein  our  Saviour,  Christ,  overcame  the 
devil.  It  is  the  "sacred  day,"  says  Leo  the  Philosopher,  "where 
on  we  were  restored  to  our  integrity, — the  day  which  the  Lord 
honoured  by  rescuing  us  from  the  captivity  of  death,"  the 
day  "  which  God .  hath  named  for  his  service,  and  which  it 
were  a  reckless  slighting  and  contemning  of  all  religion  to  make 
common." 

2  o 


402  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOEY. 


OBSERVANCE. 

Of  the  means  employed  in  the  period  of  our  present  survey  for 
securing  honour  and  respect  to  the  Lord's  day,  more  is  recorded 
than  of  the  successful  results.  It  would  be  wrong,  however,  to 
draw  the  conclusion,  that  the  measure  of  practical  regard  to  the 
institution  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  space  which  it  occupies  in 
iristory.  "  It  is  not  necessary,  that  those  things  which  are  con 
stantly  done  should  be  noted  in  history,  but  those  things  which 
are  rarely  done.''  The  preaching,  writings,  and  other  labours  of 
such  men  as  Athanasius,  Ambrose,  Chrysostom,  and  Augustine 
must,  among  their  happy  effects,  have  been  instrumental  in  form 
ing  many  to  so  essential  a  character  as  that  of  willing  subjection 
to  the  Fourth  Commandment.  The  diligence  and  zeal  of  councils 
in  prosecuting  the  same  object  could  not  be  in  vain.  But  when 
the  eminent  Fathers  of  the  fourth  and  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen 
tury  disappeared  from  the  scene,  so  many  impediments  to  the  ad 
vance  of  Sabbath  profanation  were  removed.  The  spirit,  which  in 
other  times  made  that  day  to  be  a  delight,  gave  way  to  one  which 
regarded  it  as  a  form  and  a  burden ;  and  the  new  appliances  of 
fines  and  bodily  chastisement  to  restrain  its  abuse,  showed  that 
open  violation  and  slothful  neglect  of  the  sacred  rest  had  become 
more  prevalent.  One  token  of  good,  however,  was  the  desire 
shown  throughout  the  sixth  century  to  stay  the  progress  of  the 
evil.  The  succession  of  efforts  employed  for  this  purpose  by 
twenty  councils,  and  the  views  of  the  institution  entertained, 
proved  how  excellent  it  is  in  itself,  and  how  it  commends  itself  to 
the  reason  and  convictions  of  mankind.  In  the*  following  century, 
we  have  accounts  of  the  general  observance  of  the  day ;  one  of 
them  by  Cummianus,  an  Irish  Abbot  or  Bishop,  of  the  year  640, 
and  another  by  Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  both  in  the 
same  terms.  "  On  the  Lord's  day,"  says  the  latter,  in  his  Pceni- 
tential,  "  the  Greeks  and  Romans  neither  sail  nor  ride  on  horse 
back  ;  they  do  not  make  bread,  nor  travel  in  a  carriage,  except  to 
church  only,  nor  do  they  bathe."  The  Emperor  Charlemagne  hav 
ing  been  desired  by  the  clergy  to  provide  for  the  stricter  observa 
tion  of  the  day,  "  he  accordingly  did  so,  and  left  no  stone  unturned 
to  secure  its  honour,  and  restrain  his  subjects  from  abusing  it. 


CENTUKIES  IV. -XV.  403 

His  care  succeeded,  and  during  his  reign  the  Lord's  day  bore  a 
considerable  figure.  But  after  his  decease  it  put  on  another  face."1 
This  relapse,  however,  served  to  rouse  the  friends  of  the  institu 
tion  to  greater  exertion.  Councils  were  convened  at  Paris  and 
Aken  (Auchen,  Aix  la  Chapelle).  Bishop  Jona  and  others  set 
themselves  against  the  evil.  And  when  we  take  into  account,  also, 
the  efforts  of  Leo,  the  Philosopher,  and  Alfred  the  Great,  we  are 
not  surprised  at  the  remark  of  an  historian  as  respects  Christen 
dom  generally  in  the  ninth  century  :  "  We  are  now  prepared  to 
allow  that  there  is  considerable  truth  in  the  statement,  that  during 
the  contests  concerning  image -worship,  society  was  strict  in  all 
religious  observances,  and  great  attention  was  paid  to  Sunday."2 
It  was  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  \Valdenses,  "  that  the  observa 
tion  of  the  Sabbath,  by  ceasing  from  worldly  labours  and  from 
sin,  by  good  works,  and  by  promoting  the  edification  of  the  soul 
through  prayer  and  hearing  the  word,  is  enjoined"  in  the  law  of 
God.3  We  are  furnished  with  information  respecting  their  morals 
by  Reinerus  Sacco,  an  apostate  from  their  church,  and  a  Jacobin 
inquisitor,  who  wrote  a  book  against  them  about  1204,  and 
whose  testimony  is  above  suspicion.  Besides  mentioning,  "  that 
they  work  on  feast  days,  and  disregard  the  fasts  of  the  Church, 
dedications,  and  benedictions,"  and  referring  to  their  churches  and 
schools,  he  says,  "  They  are  composed  and  modest  in  manners. 
They  do  not  multiply  riches,  but  are  content  with  necessaries. 
They  are  also  chaste,  especially  the  Leonists.  They  are  temperate 
in  eating  and  drinking.  They  do  not  go  to  taverns,  nor  to  danc 
ings,  nor  to  other  vanities.  They  restrain  themselves  from  anger. 
.  .  .  They  avoid  scurrility,  detraction,  levity  of  conversation, 
lying  and  swearing."4  We  may  conceive  what  their  deportment 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week  would  be,  from  the  circumstance, 
that,  when  a  barbe  or  minister  was  appointed,  an  oath  was  adminis 
tered  to  him  before  the  assembled  barbes,  in  this  form,  "  Thou, 
such  a  one,  swearest  on  thy  faith  to  maintain,  multiply,  and  in 
crease  our  law,  and  not  to  discover  the  same  to  any  in  the  world, 
and  that  thou  promisest  not  in  any  manner  to  swear  by  God, 
and  that  thou  observe  the  Lord's  day,  and  that  thou  wilt  not 

1  Morer  On  the  Lord's  Day,  pp.  270,  271.  3  Blair's  Waldenses,  vol.  i.  p.  220. 

*  Fialay's  Byzan.  Empire,  vol.  I.  p.  311.  *  Ibid.  vol.  i.  pp.  408,  412. 


404  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

do  anything  to  thy  neighbour  which  thou  wouldst  not  have  him 
to  do  to  thee,  and  that  thou  dost  believe  in  God  who  has  made 
the  sun  and  nioon,  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  the  cherubim  and 
seraphim,  and  all  that  thou  seest."1 

The  practice  of  the  Bohemian  Brethren  in  relation  to  the  Chris 
tian  weekly  holy  day,  which,  we  have  already  seen,  they  held  to 
be  appointed  instead  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  was  the  following  : 
"  The  brethren  rested  from  all  secular  employments.  Their  do 
mestics  and  cattle  also  rested.  They  strictly  avoided  drunkenness, 
gambling,  dancing,  idle  conversation,  lounging,  and  the  like ;  and 
spent  the  day  in  singing  God's  praise,  reading  the  Bible,  and  attend 
ing  four  or  five  services  at  church."2  Besides  several  days  for  com 
memorating  events  in  the  history  of  Christ,  and  others  relating  to 
Mary,  the  Apostles,  and  the  martyrs,  but  on  which  every  one  after 
the  public  services  returned  to  his  work,  they  kept  fasts  four  times 
a  year,  and  on  occasions  of  remarkable  calamities,  or  of  the  ex 
clusion  of  an  individual  from  the  Church.3  They  made  a  distinc 
tion  between  the  Sabbath  and  the  other  days ;  the  former  being 
considered  by  them  as  of  inviolable  obligation,  the  others  observed 
with  Christian  liberty,  for  recalling  important  facts,  and  for  giv 
ing  opportunities  of  useful  admonition,  that,  "  after  preaching  and 
prayers  are  over,  they  may  apply  themselves  to  their  ordinary 
works  as  on  other  days."4 

From  the  facts  set  forth  in  this  and  two  preceding  sections,  it 
appears  that  for  fifteen  centuries  the  first  day  of  the  week  was, 
under  various  names,  recognised  throughout  Christendom  as  a 
divinely-appointed  day  of  worship  and  sacred  rest ;  that  it  was  re 
garded  as  the  old  ordinance  of  paradise  and  Sinai,  adapted  by 
extrinsic  changes  to  the  New  Economy  ;  and  that  many  writings, 
canons,  edicts,  and  other  measures,  attested  the  concern  of  good 
men  for  its  observance,  and  their  conviction  of  its  high  dignity 
and  excellence.  It  is  not  necessary  to  the  evidence  for  the 
Sabbath,  which  the  history  of  that  long  period  supplies,  that 
the  language  used  respecting  it,  the  measures  employed  on  its  be 
half,  and  the  performance  of  its  duties,  should  have  been  immacu 
late.  There  have  been  writers — Dr.  Heylyn,  for  example — who 

i  Blair's  Waldenset,  vol.  ii.  p  157.  2  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  109. 

«  Ibid.  p.  110.  *  Bruce's  An.  Steal,  p.  202. 


CENTURIES  IV. -XV.  405 

have  subjected  this  evidence  to  a  process  of  disingenuous,  unjust, 
and  naughty  criticism,  which  shows  a  disposition  to  bear  down 
rather  than  to  discover  truth,  and  under  which,  as  generally  ap 
plied,  no  document,  no  testimony,  no  man  on  trial  for  life,  no  inter 
est,  however  important,  could  be  safe.  The  marvel  is,  that  amidst 
the  growing  corruption  of  a  great  part  of  that  period,  there  was 
such  a  unanimity  of  opinion  respecting  the  Lord's  day,  and  that 
the  day  did  not  cease  to  exist.  Nor  let  it  be  said  that  the  pre 
vailing  evil  betrayed  any  inefficiency  in  the  ordinance.  From  two 
causes  at  least — from  endlessly  multiplying  holidays,  which  ob 
scured  its  authority,  and  diluted  its  strength,  and  from  the  ever 
increasing  neglect  and  perversion  of  its  essential  agencies  of  instruc 
tion  and  worship — it  was  not  allowed  its  full  and  proper  influence. 
In  all  cases  in  which  the  Sabbath  has  been  dissociated  from  en 
feebling,  demoralizing  festivals  of  human  device,  and  been  joined 
to  its  natural  allies  of  sound  religious  instruction,  and  a  simple, 
pure  worship,  it  has  evinced  itself  to  be  the  power  of  God  in 
stemming  the  tide  of  error  and  immorality,  and  in  making  com 
munities  pious,  virtuous,  and  happy.  And  that  must  be  a  mighty 
institute  which  has  been  found  to  live  and  bless  mankind  under 
manifold  disadvantages,  and  which,  in  the  case  before  us,  crippled 
though  it  was,  not  only  maintained  its  ground  amidst  such  ele 
ments  of  destruction,  but  for  so  long  a  time  prevented  the  entire 
overthrow  of  the  religious  and  social  edifice. 

THE  SABBATH  AT  THE  INFORMATION. 

In  the  controversy  respecting  a  weekly  holy  day,  parties  have 
eagerly  sought  support  for  their  respective  opinions  in  the  writings 
of  the  Reformers.  These  eminent  men  have,  on  the  one  hand,  been 
represented  as  holding  the  common  creed  of  Christians  on  the  sub 
ject,  although  it  is  admitted  that  their  language  in  several  instances 
is  not  in  seeming  accordance  with  such  views,  and  have,  on  the 
other,  been  considered  as  denying  the  Divine  obligation  of  a  stated 
day  of  sacredness  and  rest.  Of  late  years  scarcely  a  volume  or 
tract  in  defence  of-  the  latter  notion  has  appeared,  which  has  not 
"bristled"  with  the  names  of  Luther  and  Calvin  as  the  advocates 
of  liberty  from  all  Sabbatarian  impositions.  Much,  indeed,  as 


406  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

Luther,  Calvin,  and  their  associates,  are  entitled  to  our  admiration 
for  their  learning,  piety,  and  zeal,  and  to  our  gratitude  for  the 
services  which  they  rendered  to  all  the  interests  of  mankind,  it 
must  be  recollected  that  their  sentiments  do  not  on  this  or  on  any 
other  point  amount  to  a  test  of  truth.  It  is  not,  however,  incon 
sistent  with  the  great  principle,  that  no  man  is  our  master  in  such 
matters,  to  feel  a  desire  to  have  the  sanction  of  the  Reformers  for 
our  interpretation  of  the  sacred  oracles.  The  friends  of  the  Sab 
bath,  in  particular,  would  be  gratified  by  the  persuasion,  that  such 
men  had  vindicated  for  themselves  a  place  in  the  "  great  cloud  of 
witnesses"  for  the  Divine  origin,  perpetual  sacredness,  and  indis 
pensable  value  of  that  blessed  institution.  Let  us,  therefore,  in 
quire  what  were  the  views  on  this  subject  of  the  distinguished 
persons  by  whose  instrumentality  our  deliverance  from  Papal 
bondage  was  accomplished. 

The  following  remarks  and  illustrations  will,  we  trust,  present 
in  a  just  light  the  views  of  the  Reformers  on  the  subject  of  the 
Sabbatic  institution  : — 

1.  They  regarded  the  weekly  day  of  rest  and  worship  as  a  most 
reasonable,  useful,  and  indispensable  arrangement.  In  the  Con 
fessions  of  Augsburg,  Saxony,  and  Helvetia,  we  find  such  expres 
sions  as  these  applied  to  the  institution  :  "  It  was  requisite  to 
appoint  a  certain  day,  that  the  people  might  know  when  to  come 
together."1  "Natural  reason  doth  know  that  there  is  an  order  ; 
and  the  understanding  of  order  is  an  evident  testimony  of  God  ; 
neither  is  it  possible  that  men  should  live  without  any  order,  as 
we  see  that  in  families  there  must  be  distinct  times  of  labour,  rest, 
meat,  and  sleep ;  and  every  nature,  as  it  is  best,  so  doth  it  chiefly 
love  order  throughout  the  whole  life."2  "Although  religion  be 
not  tied  unto  time,  yet  it  cannot  be  planted  and  exercised  without 

a  due  dividing  and  allotting  out  of  time  unto  it Except  some 

due  time  and  leisure  were  allotted  to  the  outward  exercise  of  reli 
gion,  without  doubt  men  would  be  quite  drawn  from  it  by  their 
own  affairs."3  These  passages  teach  vis  that  the  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  Churches  were  agreed  as  to  the  propriety,  and  the  ne 
cessity  to  the  ends  of  religion,  of  certain  times  being  set  apart  for 
its  exercises  and  study.  The  Reformers  individually  apply  these 

i  Hall's  Harmony  of  Coufextons,  p.  401.  «  JWd.  p.  402.  »  Ibid.  p.  388. 


THE  REFORMATION.  407 

principles  to  specific  seasons.  Thus  Luther  says,  "  It  is  good  and 
even  necessary  that  men  should  keep  a  particular  day  in  the  week, 
on  which  they  are  to  meditate,  hear,  and  learn,  for  all  cannot  com 
mand  every  day  ;  and  nature  also  requires  that  one  day  in  the  week 
should  be  kept  quiet,  without  labour  either  for  man  or  beast."1 
On  two  occasions  we  find  him  utter  his  earnest  desire  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  holidays,  and  on  both,  with  the  express  exception  of  the 
"Dies  Dominicus"  2  On  the  worth  and  absolute  need  of  the  weekly 
Sabbath,  Calvin  is  still  more  explicit.  It  is  as  requisite  now  as  it 
ever  was  :  "While  the  day  has  ceased  as  the  figure  of  a  spiritual 
and  important  mystery,  there  are  other  and  different  ends  for 
which  it  is  set  apart ;  and  in  respect  of  the  duty  of  resting  from 
all  earthly  cares  and  employments,  and  applying  to  spiritual  exer 
cises  in  public  and  private,  the  necessity  of  a  Sabbath  is  common 
to  us  with  the  people  of  old."  3  The  observance  of  it  comprises  in 
it  all  religion  :  "  Under  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  is  com 
prehended  the  sum  of  all  piety."  4  The  neglect  of  it  indicates  the 
destitution  and  the  contempt  of  Christian  blessings  :  "And  hereby 
it  appears  what  affection  we  have  towards  all  Christianity,  and 
towards  the  serving  of  God,  seeing  we  make  that  thing  an  occa 
sion  of  withdrawing  ourselves  further  off  from  God,  which  is  given 
us  as  a  help  to  bring  us  nearer  unto  him  ;  and  be  we  once  gone 
astray,  it  serveth  to  pull  us  quite  and  clean  away — and  is  not  that 
a  devilish  spite  of  men  T'5  Such  neglect  not  only  is  an  act  of  in 
dignity  to  religion,  but  renders  every  part  of  it  ineffectual  and  value 
less  :  "He  who  setteth  at  nought  the  Sabbath-day,  has  cast  under 
foot  all  God's  service,  as  much  as  is  in  him  ;  and  if  the  Sabbath-day 
be  not  observed,  all  the  rest  shall  be  worth  nothing."6  The  obser 
vance  of  it,  on  the  other  hand,  brings  happiness  to  the  individual, 
and  secures  protection  to  the  state.  "The  Sabbath,  or  rest  of 
God — le  repos  de  Dieu, — is  not  idleness,  but  true  perfection,  which 
brings  along  with  it  a  calm  state  of  peace."7  "The  city  will  be 
safe,  if  God  be  truly  and  devoutly  worshipped,  and  this  is  attested 
by  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath."8  We  add  the  words  of 

i  Quoted  in  Fairbairn's  Typol.  vol.  ii.  p.  467.  a  See  p.  17  of  this  vol.,  note  4. 

8  Comment,  on  Exod.  xx.  8-11.  *  Comment,  on  Exod.  xvi.  38. 

8  Ser.  34  011  Deut  v.  •  On  Deut.  v.  Ser.  34 

»  On  John  v.  17.  •  On  Jer.  xvii. 


408  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

Bucer  :  "  It  must  needs  be  a  very  great  contempt  of  God,  not  to 
bestow  one  day  in  the  whole  week  in  the  knowing  and  serving  of 
our  Creator,  of  whom  we  have  received  ourselves  and  all  thing*? 
else  that  we  enjoy."1 

2.  The  sacred  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  was  a 
duty  which  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation  were  careful  to  enforce. 
"  Farel's  first  experiments  in  discipline,"  as  Dr.  Henry  informs  us, 
"  had  proved  very  distasteful.  Among  the  things  forbidden  were 
games  of  chance,  swearing,  slandering,  dancing,  the  singing  of  idle 
songs,  and  masquerading.  The  people  were  commanded  to  attend 
church,  to  keep  Sunday  strict,  and  to  be  at  home  by  nine  o'clock 
in  the  evening.  These  laws  were  proclaimed  with  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet,  and  with  threats  of  severe  punishment  against  trans 
gressors.  Four  preachers  and  two  deacons  were  appointed,  and  a 
school  was  established.  Farel  published  a  short  formulary  of 
belief,  consisting  of  twenty- one  articles,  and  was  probably  asso 
ciated  in  this  with  Calvin,  who  published  a  catechism  in  French."  2 
What  a  disciplinarian  Calvin  was,  and  how  he  laboured  by  un 
wearied  preaching  and  writing-  to  enlighten  and  reform  the  Gene- 
vese,  while  on  him  "  came  the  care  of  all  the  churches,"  we  need 
not  say.  But  he  has  not  received  the  credit  due  to  him  as  a 
friend  of  the  Sabbath.  Partial  extracts  from  his  notices  of  the 
subject  have  been  industriously  circulated,  while  care  has  not  been 
shown  to  set  forth  such  passages  as  the  following  :  "  It  is  for  us 
to  dedicate  ourselves  wholly  to  God,  renouncing  our  feelings  and 
all  our  affections  ;  and  then,  since  we  have  this  external  ordinance, 
to  act  as  becomes  us,  that  is,  to  lay  aside  our  earthly  a/airs,  so 
that  we  may  be  entirely  free  to  meditate  on  the  works  of  God."  3 
"  The  Sabbath  is  the  bark  of  a  spiritual  substance,  the  use  of 
which  is  still  in  force,  of  denying  ourselves,  of  renouncing  all  our 
own  thoughts  and  affections,  and  of  bidding  farewell  to  one  and 
all  of  "our  own  employments,  so  that  God  may  reign  in  us,  then  of 
employing  ourselves  in  the  worship  of  God."4  "  Every  man,"  he 
remarks,  as  a  reason  why  Christians  should  not  go  to  law  upon 
the  Lord's  day,  "  ought  to  withdraw  himself  from  everything  but 
the  consideration  of  God  and  His  works,  that  all  men  may  be 

i  On  Ps.  xcii.  3  sen  34,  Deut.  T. 

•  Lift  and  Times  o/  John  Calvin,  vol.  i.  p.  113.  «  f1<vl. 


THE  REFORMATION.  409 

stirred  up  to  serve  and  honour  Him."1  And  as  he  excludes 
secular  labour,  so  also  worldly  recreations  :  "  If  we  employ  the 
Lord's  day  to  make  good  cheer,  to  sport  ourselves,  to  go  to  games 
and  pastimes,  shall  God  in  this  be  honoured  1  Is  it  not  a  mockery '? 
Is  not  this  an  unhallowing  of  his  name  1 "  2  Peter  Viret,  his  col 
league,  was  like-minded  :  "One  end  of  bodily  rest  on  the  Sabbath," 
he  says,  "  is  that  men  might  attend  upon  the  ministry  and  service 
of  God  in  the  church,  and  that  we  might  meditate  upon  the  works 
of  God,  and  be  occupied  in  the  duties  of  charity  to  our  neigh 
bours."3  The  friend  of  Calvin,  as  well  as  of  Luther,  Bucer,  re 
ferring  to  the  service  of  God  as  required  on  the  Lord's  day  above 
all  others,  gives  utterance  to  these  earnest  words  :  "  Let  our  man 
ners  show  it,  let  the  holiness  of  our  lives  testify  to  it,  let  our 
works  prove  it ;  for  who  will  believe  that  he  has  been  present  at 
the  assemblies  of  the  Church,  and  has  heard  the  word  of  God  with 
a  sincere  heart  and  a  true  faith,  who  bestows  the  remainder,  not 
only  of  that  day,  but  of  his  life  ;  not  only  more  vainly,  but  more 
wickedly1?"4  Zuinglius,  Bullinger,  who  succeeded  him  in  his 
pastoral  charge,  (Ecolampadius,  Peter  Martyr,  and  Zanchius,  have 
written  to  the  same  effect.  Thus  also  taught  Luther  and  his 
friends.  "Although  the  Sabbath,"  Luther  says,  "  is  now  abolished, 
and  the  conscience  is  freed  from  it,  it  is  still  good  and  even  neces 
sary,  that  men  should  keep  a  particular  day  in  the  week  for  the 
sake  of  the  word  of  God,  on  which  they  are  to  meditate,  hear, 
and  learn,  for  all  cannot  command  every  day ;  and  nature  also 
requires  that  one  day  in  the  week  should  be  kept  quiet,  without 
labour  either  for  man  or  beast."5  Even  when,  in  the  vehemence 
of  his  zeal  against  a  return  to  Judaical  observance,  he  rashly 
orders  persons  to  trample  on  the  institution  rather  than  pervert  it 
in  that  form,  he  does  not  forget  to  say,  "  Keep  it  holy  for  its  use' 
sake,  both  to  body  and  soul."6  In  treating  of  the  Third  [Fourth] 
Commandment,  Melanchthon  mentions,  among  the  breaches  of  it, 
the  neglect  of  the  public  ministry  of  the  church.  Bucer  says, 
"It  is  our  duty  to  sanctify  one  day  in  each  week  for  the  public 
service  of  religion  :  that  there  be  one  day  in  the  week  on  which 
the  people  may  have  nothing  else  to  do  than  to  go  to  church,  there 

1  Ser.  93  on  Deut.  v.  2  Ser.  34  on  Deut.  v.  *  On  Fourth  Commandment. 

Mn  Matt.  xii.  11.  *  Fairba:rn,  as  before.        •  Coleridge's  Table  Talk,  ii  315. 


410  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

to  hear  G-od's  word,  to  pour  out  their  prayers,  to  confess  their 
faith,  to  give  thanks,  to  make  oblations,  and  to  receive  the  holy 
communion  :  hence  the  Lord's  day  was  consecrated  to  these  by  the 
very  apostles."1  Let  us  add  Chemnitz,  who,  though  he  belongs 
to  a  later  time,  was  an  able  and  learned  expounder  of  Lutheran 
doctrine,  and  has  been  brought  forward  against  us.  In  his  view, 
"  the  Sabbath  is  violated  chiefly  by  those  who  abuse  that  time  of 
rest  unto  pleasures,  lightness,  surfeiting,  drunkenness,  and  all  other 
kind  of  wickedness  ;  whereby  it  cometh  to  pass,  that  commonly 
God  is  upon  no  day  more  offended  than  upon  those  which  arc 
specially  appointed  unto  his  worship  and  service."2  And  again, 
"  Christ  by  his  example  doth  show  how  the  time  between  the 
public  assemblies  ought  to  be  devoted  to  spiritual  improvement, 
for  after  he  had  taught  in  public,  and  the  assembly  was  dismissed, 
he  privately  examined  and  further  instructed  his  disciples."3 
These  last  words  remind  us  that  the  Reformers,  like  the  Fathers 
and  all  "  good  Christians,"  regarded  the  Lord's  day  as  lasting 
beyond  the  hours  of  public  worship,  as  having  the  same  extent 
with  any  other  day,  and  as  a  day  to  be  sanctified  throughout. 
"  Let  us  bear  in  mind,"  says  Calvin,  "  that  this  day  is  not 
appointed  for  us  only  to  come  to  the  sermon,  but  that  we  might 
employ  the  rest  of  the  time  in  praising  God;"  and,  as  he  after 
wards  remarks,  "  in  digesting  the  good  doctrine,  that  by  this 
means  we  may  be  so  formed  and  fashioned  as  that  during  the 
week  it  may  cost  us  nothing  to  raise  our  hearts  to  God."4 

3.  The  lessons  which  the  Reformers  taught  on  this  subject 
were  by  them  and  by  their  flocks  conscientiously  practised.  We 
have  seen  no  account  of  Luther's  more  private  deportment  on  the 
day  of  rest ;  but^  from  the  character  of  the  man,  and  from  his 
more  deliberate  utterances  regarding  the  sacredness  and  importance 
of  the  institution,  we  may  presume  that  his  Sabbath-keeping 
would  be  such  as  became  one  so  pious  and  prayerful  as  he  was. 
The  same  conclusion  seems  to  be  warranted  by  the  habits  which 
he  was  the  means  of  forming  in  others.  For  it  appears  that  such 
Sabbath  desecration  as  became  general  in  later  times,  was  for  a 
considerable  period  unknown  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  Plitt,  of 

1  De  Reg.  Christ.,  lib.  i.  c.  11 .  3  Exam,  de  Die'bus  Festii. 

8  Exam,  de  Diebus  Festi-s.  *  On  Deut.  v.  Ser.  34. 


THE  REFORMATION.  411 

Bonn,  who  mentions  this  fact,  at  the  same  time  states,  respecting 
the  Protestants  who  held  the  Calvinian  creed,  that  "  of  old  the 
Reformed  Church  specially  maintained  a  strict  Sabbath  celebra 
tion  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  God."  1  On  this  subject  Calvin 
remarks,  "  I  am  obliged  to  be  a  little  more  prolix  here,  because  in 
our  day  some  unquiet  spirits  make  an  outcry  about  the  Lord's  day. 
They  complain  that  the  Christian  people  are  nursed  in  Judaism 
because  some  observance  of  days  is  retained." 2  "  When  our 
shop  windows,"  he  observes  in  another  publication,  "  are  shut  on 
the  Lord's  day — when  we  travel  not,  after  the  common  order  and 
fashion  of  men — this  is  to  the  end  we  should  have  more  liberty 
and  leisure  to  attend  on  that  which  God  commandeth,  that  is, 
to  be  taught  by  His  word,  to  meet  together,  to  make  confession 
of  our  faith,  to  call  upon  His  name,  to  exercise  ourselves  in  the 
use  of  His  sacraments — the  purpose  which  this  order  ought  to 
serve."3 

4.  The  Reformers  believed  the  Sabbath  to  have  been  appointed 
by  God  at  the  creation.  In  explaining  Gen.  ii.  3,  Luther  says, 
"  It  therefore  follows  from  this  place,  that  if  Adam  had  abode  in 
innocence,  he  should  yet  have  kept  holy  the  seventh  day — that  is, 
he  should  have  instructed  his  descendants  concerning  the  will  and 
worship  of  God,  and  rendered  to  Him  praise,  thanksgiving,  and 
offerings.  On  other  days,  he  should  have  cultivated  the  soil  and 
tended  his  flocks.  Nay,  after  the  fall  he  sanctified  that  seventh 
day  ;  in  other  words,  he  instructed  his  family  on  that  day,  as  is 
testified  by  the  offerings  of  his  sons,  Cain  and  Abel.  Wherefore, 
the  Sabbath  was  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  set  apart  to 
Divine  worship."4  According  to  The  Confession  of  Saxony,  which 
was  drawn  up  by  Melanchthon,  and  expresses  the  views  of  Luther 
and  his  friends,  "There  hath  been  at  all  times,  even  from  the 
beginning  of  mankind,  a  certain  order  of  public  meetings.  There 
hath  been  also  a  certain  distinction  of  times,  and  of  some  other 
ceremonies,  and  that,  without  doubt,  full  of  gravity  and  elegancy, 
among  those  excellent  lights  of  mankind,  whenas  in  the  same 
garden  or  cottage  there  sat  together  Shem,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 

1  In  Rclig.  Condit.  of  Christendom  (1852),  p.  465. 

»  Instit.  on  Fourth  Commandment.  8  Ser  34,  on  D0ut  V. 

«  l-utheri  Opera  (M  B.L.),  torn,  v.  p.  23. 


412  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

their  families  ;  and  whenas,  that  sermon  which  Shem  made  con 
cerning  the  true  God,  the  son  of  God,  the  distinction  of  the 
Church  and  other  nations,  being  heard,  afterward  they  together 
used  invocation."1  Melanchthon,  in  his  Commentary  on  Genesis, 
remarks,  when  considering  ch.  ii.  3,  that  the  seventh  day,  as  the 
word  sanctify  denotes,  was  appropriated  to  the  Divine  service.  In 
expounding  Exodus  xx.  8,  Calvin  has  these  words  :  "  Unquestion 
ably,  when  he  had  finished  the  creation  of  the  world,  God  assumed 
to  Himself,  and  consecrated  the  seventh  day,  that  He  might  keep 
His  worshippers  entirely  free  from  all  other  cares  when  engaged 
in  considering  the  beauty,  excellence,  and  glory  of  His  works/' 
On  the  llth  verse  of  the  same  chapter,  he  remarks,  that  the  pro 
hibition  to  gather  manna  on  the  seventh  day,  seems  to  imply  the 
received  knowledge  and  use  of  the  Sabbath,  and  that  it  is  in 
credible  that,  when  God  delivered  the  rite  of  sacrifice  to  the  saints, 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  could  have  been  neglected.  Let  us 
add  a  sentence  from  his  notes  on  Genesis  ii.  3  :  "  God,  therefore, 
first  rested,  then  blessed  this  rest,  that  in  all  ages  it  might  be  sacred 
among  men  ;  in  other  words,  He  consecrated  every  seventh  day  to 
rest,  that  His  own  example  might  be  a  perpetual  rule'''  According 
to  Peter  Martyr,  the  fourth  ranks  in  antiquity  with  its  associated 
requirements  in  the  Decalogue  :  "  This  commandment  of  the  Sab 
bath  was  no  more  then  first  given  when  it  'was  pronounced  from 
heaven  by  the  Lord,  than  any  other  of  the  moral  precepts."2  Of 
the  Sabbath,  Bullinger,  commenting  on  Rom.  xiv.  5,  says,  "  As  it 
was  in  the  beginning  of  the  world,  so  it  must  continue  to  its  end." 
Beza,  in  his  annotations  on  Rev.  i.  10,  observes,  that  "the  seventh 
day  having  stood  from  the  creation  of  the  world  to  the  resurrec 
tion  of  Christ,  was  exchanged  by  the  apostles,  doubtless  at  the 
dictation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  that  which  was  the  first  day  of 
the  new  world."  And  Ursinus,  in  his  Catechism,  after  mention 
ing  the  reasons  for  the  institution,  remarks,  "  As  these  relate  to 
no  definite  period,  but  to  all  times  and  ages  of  the  world,  it  fol 
lows  that  God  would  have  men  bound  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  even  to  its  end  to  keep  a  certain  Sabbath." 

o.  With  such  views  of  a  primal  Sabbath,  the  Reformers  could 
not  but  regard  it  as  in  substance  perpetuated  in  the  Jewish  weekly 

1  Hall's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  402.  2  On  Gen.  ii. 


THE  REFOBMATION.  413 

holy  day.  While  they  agreed  with  all  Christians  that  God  com 
manded  the  Jews  to  sanctify  one  day  in  seven,  they  had  no  con 
ception  of  its  dating  from  the  2500th  year  of  the  world,  but 
considered  the  transactions  of  Sin  and  Sinai  as  the  recognition  of 
a  world-old  institution.  And  on  two  grounds — its  origination  in 
the  example  and  command  of  Jehovah  at  the  creation,  and  its 
renewal  in  the  Decalogue — they  held  it  to  be  of  Divine  authority. 

6.  In  like  manner,  their  views  respecting  the  early  appoint 
ment  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest  fully  committed  the  Reformers  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  authority  of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 
This  they  knew  had  been  the  holy  day  of  the  Church  from  the 
time  of  the  Kedeemer's  resurrection.  They  themselves  had  regu 
larly  observed  it  as  such.  In  this  and  in  no  other  day  they  saw 
their  idea  of  a  primitive  and  permanent  weekly  rest  realized. 
They  were  therefore  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Lord's  day, 
being  the  continuance  of  a  heaven-born  institute,  must  necessarily 
be  an  ordinance  of  God. 

But  sufficient  though  this  evidence  is,  it  is  not  the  only  ground 
on  which  we  can  rest  the  assertion,  that  the  Reformers  maintained 
the  doctrine  in  question.  Let  us  adduce  the  following  additional 
proofs.  These  men  are  found  to  reject  certain  practices  which  had 
been  customary  in  the  Church,  for  the  express  reason  that  they 
were  not  sanctioned  by  the  word  of  God.  "  The  fast  of  Lent," 
says  the  latter  Helvetic  Confession,  "  hath  testimony  of  antiquity, 
but  none  out  of  the  apostles'  writings  ;  and  therefore  ought  not, 
nor  cannot,  be  imposed  on  the  faithful."1  In  the  same  Confes 
sion  it  is  declared,  "  As  for  Popish  visiting  with  the  extreme 
unction,  we  have  said  before  that  we  do  not  like  of  it,  because  it 
hath  many  absurd  things  in  it,  and  such  as  be  not  approved  by 
the  canonical  Scriptures."2  On  the  fast  of  Lent,  the  Confession 
of  Wurtemburg  harmonizes  with  that  of  Helvetia,  as  these  words 
show  :  "  It  is  manifest  that  Christ  did  not  command  this  fast ; 
neither  can  the  constitution  of  our  nature  abide  it,  that  we  should 
imitate  the  example  of  Christ's  fasting,  who  did  abstain  full  forty 
days  and  forty  nights  from  all  meat  and  drink."3  We  have  seen, 
in  an  early  part  of  this  volume,  that  holidays  were  entirely  re 
jected  by  the  Scottish  Reformers,  because  they  "  had  no  institn- 

1  Htll's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  383.  *  TUd.  p.  385.  3  Ibid.  p.  405. 


414  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOKY. 

tion  ;"  that  they  were  ousted  from  Geneva,  first  by  Farel  and 
Viret,  and  a  second  time  by  the  Council ;  that  there  was  none  in 
reformed  Strasburg  ;  that  the  Church  of  Zurich  discarded  twelve 
feast-days  ;  and  that  Luther  and  the  Belgic  churches  would  have 
banished  them  if  it  had  been  in  their  power.  Henry,  in  his  Life 
cf  Calvin,  remarks,  "  The  Bernese,  after  accomplishing  the  expul 
sion  of  the  ministers" — Calvin,  Farel,  and  Courad  (or  Couralt), — 
"  had  re-established  in  Geneva  the  following  festivals  : — the  cir 
cumcision,  the  annunciation,  the  ascension,  and  Christmas-day. 
These  the  Genevese  now  at  once  abolished,  and  by  so  doing  highly 
incensed  their  allies.  Calvin,  to  whom  this  movement  was  gene 
rally  attributed,  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  take  any  steps 
against  it,  recollecting,  probably,  that  the  observance  of  holy  days 
is  nowhere  expressly  enjoined  in  Scripture."1  In  another  part  of 
the  work,  the  author  unnecessarily  laments  the  sacrifice  in  the 
Protestant  Church  of  "  that  joyous  life  which  was  connected  with 
the  Catholic  festivals,  and  which  Zwingle,  Farel,  and  Calvin,  so 
disturbed  by  their  abridgment  of  the  holidays.  Thus,  while  the 
Lutheran  Church  retained  even  the  least  of  the  festivals  in  the 
ecclesiastical  year,  the  Reformed  Church  could  with  difficulty 
retain  the  four  high  festivals,  the  preachers  not  even  alluding  to 
the  rest  in  their  discourses.  Calvin  was  neither  in  favour  of,  nor 
absolutely  against,  the  festivals  ;  but  was  obliged  to  yield  to  the 
common  wish  of  the  people."  The  writer  introduces  here  this 
note  :  "  In  the  register  of  December  19,  1554,  we  find  the  fol 
lowing  notice  :  —  <  Christmas-day  shall  be  celebrated  as  usual, 
though  Calvin  has  represented  to  the  Council  that  it  would  be  as 
well  to  dispense  with  this  festival  as  with  the  other  three  ;'  "  and 
proceeds  thus  :  "He  was  slanderously  accused  of  wishing  to 
abolish  the  Sabbath  :  against  this  statement  he  defended  himself, 
and  showed,  in  a  letter  to  Haller,  how  the  report  arose.2  Farel 
and  Viret  had  at  first  pursued  the  practice  of  noticing  the  festivals 
which  had  occurred  in  the  week  on  the  following  Sunday.  After 
the  expulsion  of  the  ministers,  these  festivals  were  celebrated  on 
the  original  days.  On  Calvin's  return,  and  when  he  was  strenu- 

1  Vol.  ii.  p.  115. 

2  John  Haller,  "  of  the  illustrious  family  of  that  name,"  was  paitor  of  the  Bernese 
Church.— Bonnet,  in  his  Letters  of  Calvin,  voL  ii.  p.  235,  ttote. 


THE  KEFOKMATION.  415 

ously  endeavouring  to  establish  his  reformation  according  to  the 
Gospel,  he  appointed,  though  regarding  the  observation  of  the 
festivals  as  a  matter  of  indifference,  certain  hours  for  prayer  on 
those  days,  and  during  which  the  shops  were  to  be  kept  closed. 
At  noon  every  one  was  to  return  to  his  usual  occupations.  Christ 
mas-day  was  the  only  festival  retained.  The  Council,  however, 
without  asking  him,  abolished,  in  1551,  all  the  attendant  solem 
nities."1  Although,  then,  particular  expressions  have  been  con 
ceived  to  imply  the  contrary,  the  facts  that  have  just  been  ad 
duced  prove  that  the  Reformers  considered  the  Lord's  day  as 
belonging  to  a  very  different  category  from  holidays.  They  re 
duced  the  number  and  altered  the  observance  of  holidays — in  some 
instances,  wholly  excluded  them — and,  if  they  had  had  their  wish, 
would  in  every  case  have  done  so.  In  no  instance  was  it  ever 
attempted,  or  even  proposed  to  them,  to  displace  the  Lord's  day. 
The  charge  preferred  by  Barclay  against  Calvin,  that  "  he  had  a 
consultation  once  as  to  transferring  the  Lord's  day  observances  to 
Thursday,"  had  nothing  to  support  it  but  the  word  of  a  man  who 
lived  in  the  Court  of  James  L,  as  a  spy  in  the  interest  of  the 
Queen-Mother  of  France,  and  who,  says  Dr.  Twisse,  "  if  he  could 
not  prove  true  and  loyal  to  his  natural  prince,  could  not  be  ex 
pected  to  carry  himself  truly  and  honestly  towards  John  Calvin."2 
A  charge,  which  was  not  even  attempted  to  be  sustained  by  a 
particle  of  evidence,  and  yet  still  figures  in  anti-Sabbatic  works, 
merits  no  refutation,  but  we  may  state  that  it  is  disproved  by  the 
uniform  respect  for  the  day  which  Calvin  expressed  in  his  words 
and  by  his  life. 

There  are,  besides,  direct  references  by  the  Reformers  to  the 
Christian  Sabbath  which  establish  the  position,  that  they  held  it 
to  be  a  Divine  ordinance.  They  believed,  we  have  seen,  that 
nature  and  order  demanded  some  time  to  be  set  apart  in  every 
age  to  rest  and  religion,  and  that  a  seventh  day  for  these  pur 
poses  was  prescribed  at  the  creation  for  the  human  race  in  their 
successive  generations.  They,  at  the  same  time,  believed  that  all 
obligation  to  observe  Saturday  as  a  Sabbath  had  ceased.  The 
question,  then,  to  be  determined  was,  On  what  other  day  are  we 
to  enjoy  the  indispensable  rest  and  worship  of  a  weekly  holy  day 

l  Vol.  L  p.  41&  -  Moral,  of  Fourth  Com.,  p.  35. 


416  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOKY. 

— on  what  day  are  we  to  be  favoured  with  the  provisions,  and  to 
fulfil  the  enduring  appointment  of  Paradise  ?  That  appointment, 
and  the  moral  part,  as  they  called  it,  of  the  Fourth  Commandment, 
they  believed  to  be  still  in  force.  They  might  have  seen  that 
nothing  more  than  some  indication  of  the  particular  day  was  re 
quired.  They  did  say,  that  there  is  no  express  command  in  the 
New  Testament  declaring,  "  Thou  shalt  keep  holy  the  first  day  of 
the  week."  The  conclusion  to  which  some  suppose  they  came 
was,  that  the  early  Christians  were  left  at  liberty  to  take  the  day 
which  they  might  agree  to  prefer.  Such  a  conclusion,  it  might  be 
shown,  was  utterly  unwarranted.  Nor  could  they  hold  it  consis 
tently  with  what  they  themselves  thus  declare  respecting  the  man 
ner  in  which  the  Lord's  day  was  appointed.  In  the  Confession  of 
Saxony  we  find  these  words  :  "  We  thank  God,  the  everlasting 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who,  for  His  Son  and  by  Him, 
gathered  an  eternal  Church,  for  that  even  from  the  first  beginning 
of  mankind  He  hath  preserved  the  public  ministry  of  the  gospel 
and  honest  assemblies ;  who  Himself  also  hath  set  apart  certain 
times  for  the  same ;  and  we  pray  Him  that  henceforth  He  will 
save  and  govern  His  Church." 1  "  The  general  rule,"  as  we  read  in 
the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  "  abideth  still  in  the  moral  law,  that 
at  eertain  times  we  should  come  together  to  these  godly  exercises  ; 
but  the  special  day,  which  was  but  a  ceremony,  is  free.  Where 
upon  the  apostles  retained  not  the  seventh  day,  but  did  rather  take 
the  first  day  of  the  week  for  that  use,  that  by  it  they  might  ad 
monish  the  godly  both  of  their  liberty,  and  of  Christ's  resurrec 
tion."2  We  add  a  sentence  from  the  same  Confession,  "  The  true 
unity  of  the  Church  doth  consist  in  several  points  of  doctrine,  in 
the  true  and  uniform  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  in  such  rites  as 
the  Lord  himself  hath  set  down"5  Let  us  compare  two  sentences, 
the  one  in  the  former,  the  other  in  the  latter  Helvetic  Confession  : 
"  Even  the  Lord's  day  itself,  ever  since  the  apostles'  time,  was 
consecrated  to  religious  exercises,  and  unto  a  holy  rest ;  which 
also  is  now  very  well  observed  of  our  churches,  for  the  worship  of 
God,  and  increase  of  charity."4  "  The  which  [the  true]  Church, 
though  it  be  manifest  to  the  eyes  of  God  alone,  yet  is  it  not  only 

Hall's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  435.  2  Tbvi.  p.  430. 

»  Itnd.  p.  217.  i  Ibid.  p.  382. 


TUB  KEFOEMATION.  417 

seen  and  known,  by  certain  outward  rites,  instituted  of  Christ 
himself,  and  by  the  Word  of  God,  as  by  a  public  and  lawful  dis 
cipline  ;  but  it  is  so  appointed,  that  without  these  marks  no  man 
can  be  judged  to  be  in  this  Church,  but  by  the  special  privilege 
of  God."1  "  Consecrated  since  the  apostles'  time,"  in  the  former 
of  these  sentences,  points  to  the  inspired  means  by  which  the  will 
of  Christ  was  made  known.  "  It  was  meet,"  says  Melanchthon, 
"  that  the  apostles  should  on  this  account " — the  resurrection  of 
Christ — "  have  changed  the  day."  2  Bucer  observes,  "  The  Lord's 
day  was  consecrated  " — as  a  day  on  which  the  people  might  have 
nothing  else  to  do  than  engage  in  religious  services — "  by  the 
very  apostles."3  "The  Sabbath,"  according  to  Bullinger,  "is 
ordained  of  God  not  for  rest  in  itself,  for  he  nowhere  alloweth 
idleness ;  therefore  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath  is  commanded  for 
another  end,  namely,  for  the  diligent  study  of  religion,  for  it  is 
therefore  commanded  to  rest  from  manual  labour,  that  we  may 
spend  this  whole  day  in  the  exercise  of  religion."4  The  apostles 
must  have  been  Calvin's  "  ancients  "  in  the  following  words  :  "  It 
was  not  without  reason,  that  the  ancients  substituted  what  we 
call  the  Lord's  day  in  the  room  of  the  Sabbath.  For  when  the 
true  rest,  which  the  old  Sabbath  symbolized,  had  its  fulfilment  in 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  by  that  very  day  which  ended  the 
shadows,  Christians  are  warned  not  to  cleave  to  the  shadowy 
ceremonial."5  If  Calvin  had  represented  Christians  as  substitut 
ing  the  Lord's  day  for  the  Sabbath,  he  would,  in  contradiction  to 
his  own  solemn  protest,  have  justified  one  of  the  pretensions  of 
Rome,  that  of  afi'ecting  power  to  change  times  and  laws.  Such 
a  power  is  greater  than  that  of  prescribing  a  single  duty  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week ;  and  yet  for  this  the  word  of  an  inspired 
apostle  was  required,  for,  as  Calvin  says,  "  It  was  for  this  use" — 
the  peace  (the  good)  of  Christian  society — "  that  the  Sabbath 
was  retained  in  the  churches  planted  by  him"  (the  apostle  Paul), 
"  for  he  appoints  that  day  to  the  Corinthians,  whereon  to  collect 
their  contributions  in  aid  of  their  brethren  in  Jerusalem."  6  We 
have  found  Beza  afiirming,  that  the  first  day  of  the  new  world 

1  Hail's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  217.  2  Wells'  Practical  Sabbatarian,  p.  612> 

»  De  Reg.  Christ,  lib.  i.  c.  11.  *  On  Rom.  xiv.  5. 

«  Instit.  Fourth  Commandment.  «  Ibid. 


418  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

was  adopted  by  the  apostles  in  place  of  the  seventh  day,  "  doubt 
less  at  the  dictation  of  the  Holy  Spirit"  In  words  similar  to 
those  of  Beza,  both  Gallasius  (Nicolas  des  Gallars),  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Geneva,  and  Faius,  a  successor  of  Calvin,  ascribe  the 
change  of  day  to  the  Holy  Spirit.1  The  latter  adds,  «  The  ob 
servance  of  this  day,  therefore,  is  not  to  be  accounted  a  matter  of 
mere  indifference,  but  to  be  carefully  attended  to  as  a  perpetual 
apostolic  tradition." 

In  yet  another  way  did  the  Reformers  show  their  faith  in  the 
doctrine  of  a  Divine  and  permanent  Sabbath.  They  considered 
the  Lord's  day  as  coming  under  the  authoritative  direction  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment.  They  erred,  indeed,  as  we  conceive,  by 
regarding  this  commandment  as  partly  ceremonial,  an  error  which 
has  involved  some  of  their  other  statements  in  confusion,  if  not 
contradiction,  and  has  been  turned  to  bad  account  in  anti-Sab 
batic  opinion  and  practice,  both  on  the  Continent,  and  in  this 
country.  But  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  precept  they  believed  to 
have  passed  away,  leaving  the  moral  part  to  sanction  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath  and  guide  its  observance.  Thus  Luther,  after  telling 
us  that  "  this  commandment,  literally  understood,  does  not  apply 
to  us  Christians,"  says,  "  But  in  order  that  the  simple  may  obtain 
a  Christian  view  of  that  which  God  requires  of  us  in  this  command 
ment,  observe  that  we  keep  a  festival."  He  then  refers  to  two 
objects  of  the  institution  applying  to  our  times,  the  provision  of 
rest  for  the  children  of  toil,  and  of  time  and  opportunity  to  men 
in  general,  such  as  they  could  not  otherwise  have,  for  attending  to 
religion.2  The  ideas  of  Calvin  on  the  subject  are  thus  expressed  : 
"  The  ancients  are  accustomed  to  call  the  fourth  precept  shadowy, 
because  it  comprehended  an  external  observance  of  the  day,  which 
at  the  coming  of  Christ  has  along  with  other  figures  been 
abolished,  which,  indeed,  is  by  them  expressed  justly."  But  he 
adds,  "  This  gives  only  the  half  of  the  truth.  Whereupon  a 
higher  sense  has  to  be  sought,  and  there  are  three  reasons  to  be 
considered  why  this  command  is  to  be  observed."  He  then  pro 
ceeds  to  state  and  enlarge  on  the  reasons,  and  adds,  "  The  sum  is, 
as  the  truth  was  delivered  to  the  Jews  under  a  figure,  so  it  is 
commanded  to  us  without  shadows  :  First,  that  we  aim  at  a  per- 

1  In  Exort.  xxxi.  Disput.  47,  in  4  Legis  Prcecept,  2  In  his  larger  Catechism. 


THE  REFOKMATION.  419 

petual  resting  from  our  works  during  the  whole  of  life,  that  God 
may  work  in  us  by  his  Spirit.  Again,  that  every  one  should 
diligently  exercise  himself  in  private  in  the  pious  recognition  of 
the  works  of  God,  as  often  as  he  has  leisure ;  then  also  that  all 
may  together  observe  the  lawful  order  of  the  Church  established 
for  hearing  the  Word,  for  the  administration  of  the  sacraments, 
&,nd  for  public  prayers.  Thirdly,  That  we  may  not  inhumanly 
oppress  those  placed  under  us."1  The  following  words  of  the 
same  individual  are  clear  and  decided  :  "  Most  certainly  what  was 
commanded  concerning  the  day  of  rest  must  belong  to  us  as  well 
as  to  them  [the  Jews].  For,  let  us  take  God's  law  in  itself,  and 
we  shall  have  an  everlasting  rule  of  righteousness.  And,  doubt 
less,  under  the  ten  commandments,  God  intended  to  give  a  rule 
that  should  endure  for  ever.  Therefore  let  us  not  think  that  the 
things  which  Moses  speaks  respecting  the  Sabbath-day  are  need 
less  for  us  :  not  because  the  figure  remaineth  still  in  force,  but 
because  we  have  the  truth  thereof."2  We  need  add  nothing  more 
than  that  the  Reformers  were  all  pledged  by  the  Formularies 
which  they  had  subscribed,  and  by  their  expositions  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  their  Treatises  and  Catechisms,  to  the  doctrine, 
that  though  the  Mosaic  ceremonies  were  repealed,  and  though 
the  curse  of  the  law  was  to  all  believers  abrogated,  the  Moral 
Law,  including  the  Fourth  Commandment,  is  "  a  perpetual  rule 
to  mankind."3 

But  it  remains  that  we  listen  to  a  few  words  from  two  distin 
guished  men,  whom  we  have  not  yet  heard  on  any  part  of  the 
subject ;  from  Zwingle,  one  of  the  most  learned  of  the  Reformers, 
and  John  Knox,  whom  an  able  writer  has  lately  characterized  as 
"  perhaps,  in  an  extraordinary  age,  its  most  extraordinary  man." 
The  former,  after  declaring  that  Christ  hath  freed  u's  from  the 
Sabbath  in  so  far  as  it  was  ceremonial,  says,  "  But  as  far  as 
regards  the  spirit  of  the  law,  which  always  remains,  it  eminently 
respects  us.  The  spirit  of  the  law  is  to  love  God  supremely,  and 
to  love  our  neighbour.  Now  to  hear  the  Word,  to  meditate  on 
God's  mercies,  and  to  assemble  for  public  prayers,  belong  to  the 

1  Institut.  on  Fourth-  Free.  2  Ser.  34,  on  Deut.  v. 

8  See  Statements   in  Hall's  Harmony ;  of  latter  Helvetic  Confession,  p.  109 ;  of 
French,  p.  113 ;  of  Belgian,  p.  114 ;  and  of  Augustan,  p.  178. 


420  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

spirit  of  the  law,  and  then  that  our  family  and  their  works  may 
rest  concerns  the  love  of  our  neighbour.  For  although  we  are  not 
bound  to  a  certain  time,  we  are  bound  to  the  glory  of  God,  to  his 
Word,  to  the  celebration  of  his  praise,  and  to  the  love  of  our  neigh 
bours.  Love,  therefore,  will  teach  us,  when  to  labour,  when  to 
keep  holy  day.  For  love  never  fails." 1  In  another  place,  referring 
to  persons  who  betray  their  folly  and  ignorance  by  "  babbling  about 
ceremonies,"  and  "  affirming  that  the  Sabbath  is  one  of  them," 
he  says,  "  The  Sabbath  is  established  by  the  first  two  and  chief 
commands  of  God,  which  constitute  the  foundation  and  basis,  as 
it  were,  of  all  laws  and  of  the  prophets.  The  authority  of  the  first 
command,  or  love  to  God,  conjoins  with  it  the  Sabbath,  and 
affirms  and  approves  it,  because  this  is  the  time  when  men  are 
wont  to  meet  to  hear  the  Word  of  God,  by  the  guidance  of  which, 
as  far  as  can  be  attributed  to  doctrine,  we  are  led  into  the  true 
knowledge  of  the  Lord  himself,  as  the  apostle  Paul  says  in  Ro 
mans  x.  14.  The  Sabbath,  therefore,  is  not  a  ceremony,  nor 
ought  to  be  classed  with  ceremonies.  So  the  second  command,  the 
love  of  our  neighbour,  confirms  the  use  and  religious  obligation  of 
the  Sabbath.  For  equity  demands  that  some  rest  and  recreation 
of  the  body  should  be  allowed  to  our  servants.  We  render  it  cere 
monial  by  a  Jewish  observance."2  The  following  words  show 
how  he  conceived  the  day  should  be  spent :  "  The  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  is  here  so  carefully  taught  us  by  God,  that  we  may 
cease  and  rest  from  sins,  and  withdraw  our  foot  from  evil  (Isa. 
Iviii.),  and  that  we  may  apply  ourselves  to  Divine  things,  to  the 
reading  of  the  Irfw,  to  the  Word  of  God,  to  thanksgiving,  to  prayers, 
to  the  recollection  of  Divine  blessings.  In  fine,  God  having  a  re 
gard  to  our  good,  has  appointed  a  rest  for  our  wearied  bodies  (for 
which  reason  the  night  also  has  been  made  for  the  use  of  men), 
for  that  which  is  without  alternate  repose  is  not  enduring.  "3  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  Knox,  than  whom  no  Reformer  had  a 
clearer  or  more  logical  head,  should  have  written  so  little  respect 
ing  the  Sabbath.  What  his  views  of  it  were,  however,  may  be 
certainly  known  from  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  First  Boole 
of  Discipline  which  were  drawn  up  by  him  and  five  other  minis- 

1  In  Epist.  ad  Coloss.  c.  li.  torn.  iv.  p.  515 

2  Oper.  torn.  i.  pp.  253,  254  8  In  Matt  vii.  torn.  iv.  p.  59. 


THE  REFORMATION.  421 

ters  ;  from  the  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly,  at  which  he  was 
usually  present ;  and,  indeed,  from  the  proverbial  views  and 
habits  in  the  matter  of  the  Scottish  people,  on  whom  he  has  exer 
cised  so  powerful  and  salutary  an  influence.  The  summary  of  the 
"  most  just,  most  equal,  most  holy,  and  most  perfect  law  of  God" 
given  in  the  Confession,  though  the  duties  not  the  precise  words 
of  almost  any  of  the  commandments  are  given,  and  the  rejection 
of  everything  in  religion  and  in  the  worship  of  God  that  "  has  no 
other  assurance  but  the  invention  and  opinion  of  man,"  prepare  us 
for  two  things  in  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  :  First,  the  decisive 
condemnation  of  festivals  in  these  words,  "  The  holy  days  invented 
by  men,  Christmas,  Circumcision,  Epiphany  [and  so  forth],  we 
judge  utterly  to  be  abolished  forth  of  this  realm,  becaiise  they  have 
no  assurance  in  God's  Word  ;"  and  second,  the  following  injunction 
relative  to  the  observance  of  the  only  holy  day  recognised  by  the 
.Reformers  of  Scotland  :  "  The  Sabbath  must  be  kept  strictly  in 
all  t0wns,  both  forenoon  and  afternoon  for  hearing  of  the  Word ; 
at  afternoon  upon  the  Sabbath,  the  Catechism  shall  be  taught, 
the  children  examined,  and  the  baptism  ministered.  Public 
prayers  shall  be  used  upon  the  Sabbath,  as  well  afternoon  as  be 
fore,  when  sermons  cannot  be  had."  In  the  third  Assembly,  which 
met  in  June  1562,  the  year  in  which  the  English  Convocation 
agreed  to  adopt  and  publish  thirty-eight  of  the  now  thirty-nine 
Articles,  and  the  enlarged  Boole  of  Homilies,  it  was  resolved  "  that 
supplication  be  made  to  Queen  Mary  for  the  punishing  of  Sabbath 
breaking,  and  of  all  vices  commanded  by  the  law  of  God  to  be 
punished,  and  yet  not  commanded  by  the  law  of  the  realm,"  and 
the  Queen  was  again  petitioned  to  the  same  effect  in  the  Assembly 
of  June  1565,  while  articles  were  prepared  to  be  sent  to  her 
Majesty,  one  of  which  mentions  "  manifest  breaking  of  the  Sabbath 
day,"  among  "  the  horrible  and  detestable  crimes"  which  ought 
to  be  punished.  It  was  in  the  Assembly  of  December  1566  that 
the  Helvetic  Confession  was  approved,  with  the  express  exception 
of  the  part  that  tolerated  festival  days.  On  all  these  occasions 
probably — at  the  meetings  of  1562  and  1566  certainly — Knox 
was  present,  and  must  have  been,  as  he  was  in  everything  that 
respected  the  welfare  of  the  Scottish  Church,  the  leader  in  the 
proceedings. 

Ifl 


422  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

Were  we  to  imitate  certain  anti-Sabbatic  writers,  we  should  be 
satisfied  with  having  presented  only  such  statements  on  this  sub 
ject  as  favour  our  own  dogma,  and  with  leaving  our  readers  to  the 
unqualified  impression  that  the  Keformers  were  consistent  advo 
cates  of  a  permanent  Sabbath.  It  is  not  easy,  indeed,  to  conceive 
how  men,  who  held  opinions  and  maintained  the  practice  which 
have  been  represented  in  their  own  words,  could  have  afforded 
occasion  to  any  for  claiming  their  patronage  of  a  very  different 
creed.  But  as  our  cause  appears  to  us  too  good  to  expose  us  even 
to  the  temptation  of  withholding  any  part  of  the  truth,  we  intend 
to  produce  in  a  following  chapter  certain  expressions  of  the  emi 
nent  men  in  question  which  have  been  considered  as  hostile  to  our 
doctrine.  If  it  should  be  found  that  the  result  does  not  deprive 
us  of  their  names  as  friends  of  the  Sabbath,  we  take  out  of  the 
hands  of  its  enemies  a  weapon  of  which  they  have  made  an  un 
sparing  and  injurious  but  unwarranted  use.  If  they  should  bo 
seen  to  be  inconsistent  with  themselves,  their  influence  on  either 
side  is  neutralized.  If  it  turn  out  that  the  scale  preponderates 
against  us,  the  question  is  where  it  was,  to  be  decided  not  by 
authority  but  by  evidence. 

Before  concluding  our  notices  of  the  Sabbath  at  the  Reforma 
tion,  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  see 
how  the  institution  then  fared  within  l;er  pale.  The  Council  of 
Trent  was  convened  by  Pope  Paul  in.  in  1545,  professedly  for 
the  purpose  of  correcting  the  ecclesiastical  disorders  of  which 
many  so  loudly  complained.  In  its  canons  and  decrees  there  are 
a  few  references  to  the  Lord's  day  and  holy  days  as  seasons  to  be 
devoutly  and  religiously  celebrated,  and  to  be  taken  advantage  of 
by  bishops  and  preachers  for  instructing  the  people  in  the  Scrip 
tures  and  in  the  mysteries  of  the  mass.  The  Catechism  put  forth 
by  the  Council  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  Third  (our  Fourth)  Com 
mandment.  There  we  find  it  stated  that  the  Sabbath  dates  from 
the  time  of  the  Exodus  ;  that,  while  the  other  commandments  of 
the  Decalogue  are  precepts  of  the  natural  and  perpetual  law,  the 
third,  as  regards  the  time  of  observing  the  Sabbath,  belongs  not 
to  the  moral  but  ceremonial  law,  i.t  which  sense  the  obligation  to 
observe  it  was  to  cease  with  the  abrogation  of  the  other  Jewish 
rites  at  the  death  of  Christ ;  that  it,  however,  comprises  some- 


THE  REFORMATION,  423 

thing  that  appertains  to  the  natural  and  moral  law — in  other 
words,  the  worship  of  God  and  practice  of  religion  ;  that  the 
apostles  therefore  resolved  to  consecrate  the  first  day  of  the  seven 
to  worship,  and  called  it  the  Lord's  day ;  and  that,  in  order  to 
their  knowing  what  they  are  to  do  and  abstain  from  on  this  day, 
it  will  not  be  foreign  to  the  pastor's  purpose  to  explain  to  the 
faithful  word  for  word  the  whole  precept.  The  Catechism  fur 
ther  represents  the  Jewish  Sabbath  as  a  sign  of  a  spiritual  and 
mystic,  and  also  of  a  celestial  rest.  It  then,  with  Rome's  usual 
art,  glides  into  language  which  identifies  the  Apostles  with  the 
Church  :  "  It  hath  pleased  the  Church  of  God,  in  her  wisdom, 
that  the  religious  celebration  of  the  Sabbath-day  should  be  trans 
ferred  to  the  Lord's  day.  By  the  resurrection,  on  that  day,  of 
our  Redeemer,  our  life  was  called  out  of  darkness  into  light,  and 
hence  the  Apostles  would  have  it  -called  the  Lord's  day."  Proofs 
from  the  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers  are  produced  for  a  number  of 
these  statements,  but  none  is  alleged  for  the  following  :  "  From 
the  infancy  of  the  Church,  and  in  subsequent  times,  other  days 
were  instituted  by  the  Apostles  and  by  our  holy  Fathers,  in  order 
to  commemorate  with  piety  and  holiness  the  beneficent  gifts 
of  God."  The  way  is  thus  prepared  for  placing  the  Sabbath  and 
Feast-days  in  close*  connexion,  and  finally,  as  in  the  following 
words,  for  putting  them  on  the  same  level  :  "  There  are  many 
other  things  which  our  Lord  in  the  Gospel  declares  may  be  done 
on  Sundays  and  holidays,  and  which  may  be  easily  seen  by  the 
pastor  in  St.  Matthew  (ch.  xii.  1,  et  seq.)  and  St.  John"  (v.  10, 
et  seq.  ;  vii.  22,  et  seq.)  Thus  Rome,  faithful  to  her  policy,  seeks 
to  neutralize  truth  by  error,  and  to  gain  the  purposes  of  error  by 
fortifying  and  dignifying  it  with  an  alliance  to  truth.  She  finds 
in  Cardinal  Tolet,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  others,  defenders  of  her 
assumed  power  over  sacred  times,  and  in  the  civil  authorities  the 
means  of  enforcing  it,  for  already  (in  1538)  had  three  or  four 
men  of  Stirling  suffered  death  "  because  they  did  eat  flesh" — 
meats  which  God  hath  created  to  be  received  with  thanksgiving — 
"  in  Lent,"  at  a  marriage  ;  and  even  while  the  Council  is  sitting, 
a  poor  man,  for  working  on  a  holy  day,  that  his  family  might 
not  starve,  is  consigned  to  the  flamea. 


THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOET. 


THE  SABBATH  AFTER  THE  REFORMATION. 

The  period  now  to  be  surveyed  brings  to  the  Lord's  day  no 
improvement  of  position  or  observance  in  the  church  or  countries 
of  the  Papacy.  It  is  something,  however,  that  a  portion  of  its 
sound  doctrine  is  contained  in  the  creed  of  the  former,  and  its 
statute  embodied,  in  the  laws  of  the  latter,  both  the  doctrine  and 
the  statute  bearing  their  silent  testimony  against  the  thoughtless 
folly  by  which  they  are  reproached,  and  the  foul  deeds  by  which 
they  are  continually  defied.  Who  can  say  that  there  have  not 
been  some  in  every  age  of  that  church  who  ^have  been  its  devout 
observers  ?  It  is  not  long  since  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath  were 
surprised  and  gratified  by  the  zeal  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  and 
the  courage  of  M.  de  Montalembert  on  its  behalf,  and  by  the  wel 
come  with  which  many  of  the  people  of  France  hailed  the  labours 
of  Cochrane  for  the  same  object. 

The  free  spirit,  on  the  other  hand,  inspired  by  the  Keformation, 
has  prompted  inquiry ;  and,  accordingly,  the  Sabbath  has,  with  other 
subjects,  been  the  matter  of  earnest  consideration  and  discussion. 
Two  facts  are  worthy  of  remark.  First,  The^  institution  has  con 
tinued  for  three  centuries  to  be  a  law  of  the  Protestant  nations  of 
Europe.  It  has  not  been  the  spirit  of  the  Keformation,  but  the 
spirit  of  Popery  that  has  ever  endangered  that  law.  It  was  this 
latter  spirit  that  produced  the  Book  of  Sports.  The  following 
anecdote  derives  credibility  from  the  whole  circumstances  of  that 
celebrated  publication.  The  subject  of  the  recovery  of  England  to 
Popery  was  considered  in  a  conclave  of  cardinals  at  Eome,  and 
after  various  modes  of  effecting  this  desirable  consummation  had 
been  suggested,  a  wily  member  of  the  fraternity  said,  "  Take  away 
England's  Sabbath,  and  your  object  is  gained."  Not  long  after, 
the  Declaration  of  Sports  appeared.1  Second,  The  agitation  of  the 
subject  has  led  to  clearer,  more  settled,  and  more  salutary  opinions 
respecting  it.  The  controversies  about  ceremonies  in  England  led 
to  the  more  satisfactory  form  in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath 
was  set  forth  in  the  Homilies  than  it  had  assumed  in  Cranmer's 

1  Related  at  a  public  meeting  in  Islington  a  good  many  years  ago  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Wilson,  son  of  the  late  Bishop  of  Calcutta. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  425 

Catechism  and  other  authorized  documents.  Similar  controversies 
between  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  those  who 
thrust  upon  that  country  the  Articles  of  Perth,  confirmed  Scotsmen 
in  their  early  view  of  the  Sabbath,  and  prepared  Henderson  and 
his  brethren  for  the  prominent  and  effective  part  which  they  took 
in  framing  the  "Westminster  formularies.  It  has  been  said,  too, 
that  the  Sabbatic  strifes  in  Holland  contributed  to  the  lucid  state 
ments  on  our  subject  in  the  same  formularies.  In  this  last  case, 
the  discussions  must  have  operated  more  by  warning  than  by  ex 
ample,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Assembly  at  Westminster  was  a  de 
cided  improvement  on  that  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  and  was  in  fact 
the  same  doctrine  as  Robinson  and  Teellinck  had  carried  from 
England  and  Scotland  to  the  Netherlands. 

In  following  the  remaining  course  of  Sabbatic  history,  which 
runs  most  strongly  and  clearly  in  English  and  Scottish  channels, 
we  begin  with  the  views  of  a  weekly  holy  day  which  have  been 
embodied  in  the  formularies  of  our  several  churches. 


DOCTRINE  OF  OUR  CHURCHES. 

The  Sabbatic  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England  is  to  be  found 
in  her  Articles,  Liturgy,  and  Homilies.  Her  seventh  Article  re 
cognises  the  continued  obligation  of  the  Ten  Commandments  thus  : 
"  Although  the  Law  given  from  God  by  Moses,  as  touching  cere 
monies  and  rites,  do  not  bind  Christian  men,  nor  the  civil  precepts 
thereof  ought  of  necessity  to  be  received  in  any  commonwealth, 
yet,  notwithstanding,  no  Christian  man  whatsoever  is  free  from 
the  obedience  of  the  commandments  which  are  called  moral."  In 
"  the  Order  of  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  it  is  re 
quired  that  "  the  priest,  turning  to  the  people,  rehearse  distinctly 
all  the  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  ;  and  that  the  people  still  kneeling 
shall,  after  every  commandment,  ask  God  mercy  for  their  trans 
gression  thereof  for  the  time  past,  and  grace  to  keep  the  same  for 
the  time  to  come."  The  words  of  this  prayer  are  set  down  for 
them  in  the  Prayer-Book,  When  the  "  minister,"  for  example, 
has  recited  the  Fourth  Commandment,  the  "  people"  are  di 
rected  to  say,  "  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  incline  our  hearts 
to  keep  this  law."  In  the  ministration  of  both  public  and  pri- 


426  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

vate  baptism  of  children,  the  sureties  are  enjoined  to  provide  that 
those  who  have  been  baptized  shall  be  taught  to  learn  the  Creed, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments,  in  the  vulgar 
tongue ;  and  in  the  form  of  public  baptism  they  are  farther  re 
quired  to  take  care  that  the  children  be  brought  to  the  Bishop  to 
be  confirmed  by  him,  so  soon  as  they  can  say  these  lessons.  Ac 
cordingly,  in  "  the  Order  of  Confirmation,"  it  is  said,  "  The 
Church  hath  thought  good  to  order,  that  none  hereafter  shall  be 
confirmed,  but  such  as  can  say  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments  ;  and  can  also  answer  to  such  other  ques 
tions,  as  in  the  Short  Catechism  are  contained  :  which  order  is 
very  convenient  to  be  observed  ;  to  the  end,  that  children,  being 
now  come  to  the  years  of  discretion,  and  having  learned  what 
their  god -fathers  and  god-mothers  have  promised  for  them  in 
baptism,  they  may  themselves,  with  their  own  mouth  and 
consent,  openly  before  the  Church,  ratify  and  confirm  the 
same."  One  of  the  things  promised  for  them,  and  which  at 
their  confirmation  they  take  it  upon  them  to  perform,  is,  "  I 
will  endeavour  obediently  to  keep  God's  holy  will  and  command 
ments,  and  walk  in  the  same  all  the  days  of  my  life,  God  being 
my  helper." 

Referring  to  pp.  40-42  of  this  volnme  for  the  consentaneous 
doctrine  of  the  Homilies  on  the  subject,  let  us  now  present  the 
views  held  by  the  Westminster  Divines,  as  they  are  expressed  in 
the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  and  in  the  words — to  many 
more  familiar  and  endeared — of  the  Shorter  Catechism  : — 

"As  it  is  of  the  law  of  Nature,  that,  in  general,  a  due  pro 
portion  of  time  be  set  apart  for  the  worship  of  God  ;  so,  in  his 
Word,  by  a  positive,  moral,  and  perpetual  commandment,  binding 
all  men  in  all  ages,  He  hath  particularly  appointed  one  day  in 
seven  for  a  Sabbath,  to  be  kept  holy  unto  him  :  which,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  was  the  last 
day  of  the  week  ;  and,  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  was 
changed  into  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  in  Scripture  is  called 
the  Lord's  Day,  and  is  to  be  continued  to  the  end'  of  the  world, 
as  the  Christian  Sabbath." 

"  This  Sabbath  is  then  kept  holy  unto  the  Lord,  when  men, 
after  a  due  preparing  of  their  hearts,  and  ordering  of  their  com- 


AFTER  THE  BEFOKMATION.  427 

mon  affairs  beforehand,  do  not  only  observe  an  holy  rest  all  the 
day  from  their  own  works,  words,  and  thoughts  about  their 
worldly  employments  and  recreations  ;  but  also  are  taken  up  the 
whole  time  in  the  public  and  private  exercises  of  His  worship, 
and  in  the  duties  of  necessity  and  mercy."1 

"  Which  is  the  Fourth  Commandment  1 

"  The  Fourth  Commandment  is,  Eemember  the  Sabbath-day, 
to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work  ; 
but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God  :  in  it 
thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter, 
thy  man-servant,  nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates.  For  in  six  days  the  Lord  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested 
the  seventh  day :  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath-day,  and 
hallowed  it. 

"  What  is  required  in  the  Fourth  Commandment  ? 
"  The    Fourth    Commandment   requireth   the    keeping    holy 
to  God  such  set  times    as  he   hath  appointed    in    his   Word ; 
expressly  one  whole  day  in   seven,    to   be  a  holy   Sabbath  to 
himself. 

"  Which  day  of  the  seven  hath  God  appointed  to  be  the  weekly 
Sabbath  1 

"  From  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  God  appointed  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  to  be  the 
weekly  Sabbath  ;  and  the  first  day  of  the  week  ever  since,  to 
continue  to  the  end  of  the  world,  which  is  the  Christian  Sab 
bath. 

"  How  is  the  Sabbath  to  be  sanctified  1 

"  The  Sabbath  is  to  be  sanctified  by  a  holy  resting  all  that  day, 
even  from  such  worldly  employments  and  recreations  as  are  law 
ful  on  other  days  ;  and  spending  the  whole  time  in  the  public  and 
private  exercises  of  God's  worship,  except  so  much  as  is  to  be  taken 
up  in  the  works  of  necessity  and  mercy. 

"  What  is  forbidden  in  the  Fourth  Commandment  ? 

"  The  Fourth  Commandment  forbiddeth  the  omission  or  care 
less  performance  of  the  duties  required,  and  the  profaning  the  day 
by  idleness,  or  doing  that  which  is  in  itself  sinful,  or  by  unnecessary 

1  Confetsion,  eh.  xxi.  sects.  7,8. 


4-28  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

thoughts,  words,  or  works,  about  our  worldly  employments  or  rs- 
creations. 

"  What  are  the  reasons  annexed  to  the  Fourth  Commandment  ? 

"  The  reasons  annexed  to  the  Fourth  Commandment  are,  God's 
allowing  us  six  days  of  the  week  for  our  own  employments,  his 
Challenging  a  special  propriety  in  the  seventh,  his  own  example, 
and  his  blessing  the  Sabbath-day." l 

Such  was  the  clearly  and  scripturally  stated  doctrine  of  the 
Sabbath  that  proceeded  from  one  of  the  most  learned  and  pious 
assemblies  ever  convened,  including  a  Lightfoot,  a  Gataker,  a 
Twisse,  a  Henderson,  a  Rutherford,  a  Wallis,  and  a  Reynolds, 
and  such  ever  since,  as  it  was  more  or  less  before,  has  been  the 
faith  of  the  best  men  of  Scotland,  England,  and  the  continents  of 
Europe  and  America,  the  only  drawback  being  that  too  many  have 
risen  up  to  counteract  such  views  by  perverse  disputings  or  by 
ungodly  practice. 

The  Independents,  who  formed  a  small  minority  in  the  Westmin 
ster  Assembly,  though  they  differed  from  the  other  members  on  cer 
tain  points,  took  no  exception  to  the  general  opinion  on  the  subject 
of  the  Sabbath.  No  fewer  than  a  hundred  ministers  and  messengers 
of  their  denomination,  including  Dr.  Owen,  met  in  a  Synod  held  in 
1658,  and  drew  up  a  Confession  of  their  Faith,  of  which,  as  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  Westminster  divines,  Neal  remarks,  "  The 
difference  between  these  two  Confessions,  in  points  of  doctrine,  is  so 
very  small,  that  modern  Independents  have  in  a  manner  laid  aside 
the  use  of  it  in  their  families,  and  agreed  with  the  Presbyterians  in 
the  use  of  the  Assembly's  Catechism."2  The  general  doctrine  of 
this  admirable  summary  of  Divine  truth,  which  is  substantially 
that  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  Homilies  of  the  Church  of 
England,  was  cordially  held  by  the  evangelical  members  of  that 
Church,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  by  the  English  Non-Conform 
ists,  till  the  rise  of  Methodism,  when,  while  Whitefield  and  his 
friends  adhered  to  the  old  creed,  Wesley  and  his  numerous  fol 
lowers  in  some  important  respects  departed  from  it.  No  class, 
however,  have  been  more  zealous  abettors  of  a  holy  Sabbath  than 
the  Wesleyan  Methodists.  From  England,  the  Westminster  For 
mularies  were  imported  into  Scotland,  which,  having  suggested  and 

1  Shorter  Cattchum.  «  History  of  the  Puritan*  (1738),  Tol.  iv.  p.  101. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  429 

materially  contributed  to  their  production,  adopted  them,  with  the 
valuable  addition  of  her  own  Directory  for  Family  Worship,  to  be 
henceforth  and  eminently  her  inheritance.  She  had  been  fami 
liarized  by  her  Reformers  with  a  Sabbath,  attended  by  no  com- 
peting  holidays,  and  strictly  observed,  but  she  gladly  welcomed  the 
fuller  testimony  on  the  subject  supplied  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
Directory,  and  Catechisms.  Nor  have  the  separations  from  her 
Church  of  some  considerable  parties  diminished  the  Sabbatic  teach 
ing  and  practice  of  the  land.  These  parties  have  both  retained 
the  old  zeal  for  the  Lord's  day,  and  given  an  impulse  to  the  feel 
ing  in  the  society  from  which  they  sprang.  The  Secession  Church, 
including  the  Erskines,  the  Moncrieffs,  Adam  Gib,  and  Brown  of 
Haddington,  Drs.  Young  of  Hawick  and  Lawson  of  Selkirk,  Drs. 
Jamieson  of  Edinburgh  and  "VVaugh  of  London,  Drs.  Ferrier  of 
Paisley  and  Dick  of  Glasgow, — the  Relief  Church,  represented  by 
Gillespie,  Thomas  Bell,  and  Dr.  Struthers, — the  Reformed  Pres 
byterian  Church  and  its  leaders,  Macmillan  and  the  Symingtons, — 
the  Independents  and  Baptists,  headed  the  one  by  Glas,  Greville 
Ewing,  and  Dr.  Wardlaw,  the  other  by  the  Haldanes  and  Dr. 
Innes, — the  United  Original  Seceders,  who  rejoiced  in  such  spiri 
tual  guides  as  Drs.  M'Crie,  Paxton,  and  Stevenson, — and  the 
Free  Church,  of  which  Dr.  Chalmers  was  the  facile  princeps, — all 
held,  as  their  successors  to  a  man  still  hold,  the  Sabbatic  doctrine 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  From  some  of  these  Churches  have 
proceeded  independent  and  able  declarations  and  defences  of  that 
doctrine,  which,  but  for  overcrowding  our  pages,  we  should  have 
been  happy  to  introduce  in  this  place.1 

One  other  doctrinal  statement  may  suffice.  It  is  "  The  Primary 
Address"  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  the  Observance  of  the 
Lord's  Day — a  manifesto  which  was  written  by  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson, 
late  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  and  not  only  expressed  the  views  of  the 
members  of  the  society,  many  of  whom  belonged  to  the  Church  of 
England,  but  was  unanimously  assented  to  in  1855  by  the  Metro 
politan  Committee,  composed  of  "  many  ministers  of  religion  of 

1  We  refer,  in  particular,  to  "  The  Testimony  of  the  United  Associate  Synod  of  the 
Secession  Church,"  and  ""  The  Testimony  to  the  Truths  of  Christ,  agreed  to  by  the 
United  Original  Seceders," — the  former  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Stark,  Dennyloanhead,  and 
Professor  Duncan  of  Mid-Caider — the  other,  by  Drs.  M'Crie  and  Stevenson  (Ayr). 

19* 


430  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

various  denominations  :" — "  That  the  dedication  of  one  day  in 
every  seven  to  religious  rest  and  the  worship  of  Almighty  God  is 
of  Divine  authority  and  perpetual  obligation,  as  a  characteristic  of 
revealed  religion  during  all  its  successive  periods  ;  having  been 
enjoined  upon  man  at  the  creation — recognised  and  confirmed  in 
the  most  solemn  manner  in  the  Ten  Commandments — urged  by 
the  prophets  as  an  essential  duty,  about  to  form  a  part  of  the  in 
stitutions  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom — vindicated  by  our  Divine 
Lord  from  the  unauthorized  additions  and  impositions  of  the  Jewish 
teachers — transferred  by  Him  and  his  apostles,  upon  the  abroga 
tion  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  in  commemoration  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  on  that 
account  called  '  The  Lord's  Day' — and  finally  established  in  more 
than  all  its  primitive  glory  as  an  ordinance  of  the  spiritual  uni 
versal  Church  of  the  New  Testament,  and  a  standing  pledge  and 
foretaste  of  the  eternal  rest  of  heaven.  And  that  this  meeting 
believes  that  every  person  in  a  Christian  country  is  bound  in  con 
science  to  devote  this  seventh  portion  of  his  time  to  the  honour  of 
God,  by  resting  from  the  business  of  his  calling  ;  by  abstaining 
altogether  from  the  pursuit  of  gain,  and  from  ordinary  pastimes 
and  recreations  ;  by  guarding  against  every  worldly  avocation  and 
interruption ;  and  by  spending  the  entire  day  in  the  public  and 
private  duties  of  religion,  with  the  exception  of  such  works  of 
necessity  and  charity  as  our  Saviour  by  his  example  was  pleased 
to  allow  and  command  :  so  as  to  designate  this  one  day  of  rest 
and  Divine  service,  after  six  days  of  labour,  as  a  more  distinguished 
privilege  of  the  Christian,  than  it  was  of  the  Patriarchal  and  Jewish 
dispensations."1 

PEESONAL  TESTIMONIES. 

It  is  only  a  few  of  such  testimonies — which  might  be  inde 
finitely  multiplied — that  our  space  allows  us  to  record.  But 
these  few  are  sufficient  to  show  how  individuals  of  various  times, 
stations,  and  other  circumstances,  are  at  one  as  to  the  authority 
and  value  of  the  weekly  rest.  Let  Lord  Bacon  be  our  first  wit 
ness  in  the  cause,  "  A  Christian,"  he  says,  "  thinks  sometime* 

1  Baylce's  Hist.  oftlieSalbath,  pp.  219,  220. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  431 

that  the  ordinances  of  God  do  him  no  good,  yet  he  would  rather 
part  with  his  life  than  be  deprived  of  them."  "  In  the  distribu 
tion  of  days,  we  see  the  day  wherein  God  did  rest  and  contemplate 
His  own  works  was  blessed  above  all  the  days  wherein  he  did 
effect  and  accomplish  them."  "  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  call  for 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath-day  ;  but  what  actions  and  works 
may  be  done  on  the  Sabbath,  and  what  not, — to  set  this  down, 
and  clear  the  whole  matter  with  good  distinctions  and  decisions, 
is  a  matter  of  great  knowledge  and  labour,  and  asketh  much 
meditation  and  conversing  in  the  Scriptures,  and  other  helps, 
which  God  hath  provided  and  preserved  for  instruction."1  Sir 
Matthew  Hale's  name  as  a  friend  of  the  institution  is  familiar, 
but  the  following  sentence  from  his  writings  is  not  so  com 
monly  cited  as  some  others  : — "And  thus  you  have  the  reason  of 
the  obligation  upon  us  Christians,  to  observe  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  because  by  more  than  a  human  institution,  the  morality  of 
the  fourth  commandment  is  transferred  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  being  our  Christian  Sabbath  ;  and  so  the  fourth  command 
ment  is  not  abrogated,  but  only  the  day  changed,  and  the  moral 
ity  of  that  command  only  translated,  not  annulled."2  "The 
very  life  of  religion,"  says  Archbishop  Leighton,  "  doth  much 
depend  upon  the  solemn  observation  of  this  day ;  consider  but,  if 
we  should  intermit  the  keeping  of  it  for  one  year,  to  what  a 
height  profaneness  would  rise  in  those  that  fear  not  God ;  which 
are  yet  restrained  (though  not  converted)  by  the  preaching  of  the 
Word  and  their  outward  partaking  of  public  worship  ;  yea,  those 
that  are  most  spiritual  would  find  themselves  losers  by  the  inter 
mission."3  The  Archbishop's  contemporary,  Bishop  Pearson,  has 
these  words  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Creed  :  "  From  this  resurrec 
tion  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  constant  practice  of  the  apostles, 
this  first  day  of  the  week  came  to  have  the  name  of  ( the  Lord's 
day ; '  and  is  so  called  by  St.  John,  who  says  of  himself  in  the 
Kevelation,  (I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day'  (Rev.  i.  10). 
And  thus  the  observation  of  that  day,  which  the  Jews  did  sanctify, 
ceased,  and  was  buried  with  our  Saviour  ;  and,  in  the  stead  of  it, 
the  religious  observation  of  that  day  on  which  the  Son  of  God 

i  Works  (1855),  vol.  ii.  p  230  ;  (1852),  vol.  i.  p.  175  ;  (1730),  vol.  iv.  p.  429. 
*  Contemplations  (1676),  vol.  I.  pp.  483,  484.  »  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  14. 


43:2  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOKY. 

rose  from  the  dead,  by  the  constant  practice  of  the  blessed  apos 
tles,  was  transmitted  to  the  Church  of  God,  and  so  continued  in 
all  ages."1  Passing  over  the  similar  views  of  Dr.  H.  More, 
Bishop  Hopkins,  Drs.  John  Scott  (author  of  the  Christian  Life) 
and  Littleton,  we  come  to  the  following  interesting  words — the 
more  so  as  proceeding  from  such  a  man  :  "  Besides  his  particular 
calling  for  the  support  of  life,"  says  John  Locke,  "  every  one  has 
a  concern  in  a  future  life,  which  he  is  bound  to  look  after.  This 
engages  his  thoughts  in  religion ;  and  here  it  mightily  lies  upon 
him  to  understand  and  reason  right.  Men  therefore  cannot  be 
excused  from  understanding  the  words  and  framing  the  general 
notions  relating  to  religion  right.  THE  ONE  DAY  IN  SEVEN,  be 
sides  other  days  of  rest,  allows  in  the  Christian  world  time  enough 
for  this  (had  they  no  other  idle  hours),  if  they  would  but  make 
use  of  these  vacancies  from  their  daily  labour,  and  apply  them 
selves  to  an  improvement  of  knowledge  with  as  much  diligence 
as  they  often  do  to  a  great  many  other  things  that  are  useless."2 
To  the  judgment  of  Locke  we  add  that  of  Addison  :  "  I  am  al 
ways  very  well  pleased  with  a  country  Sunday,  and  think,  if  keep 
ing  holy  the  seventh  day  were  only  a  human  institution,  it  would 
be  the  best  method  that  could  have  been  thought  of  for  the 
polishing  and  civilizing  of  mankind. "3  Lord  Kames,  Adam  Smith, 
and  Burke  are  names  of  great  weight,  as  those  of  men  eminent 
for  talent,  knowledge,  and  sagacity.  The  first-mentioned  says  : 
"  The  setting  apart  one  day  in  seven,  for  public  worship,  is  not  a 
pious  institution  merely,  but  highly  moral  •  with  regard  to  the 
latter,  all  men  are  equal  in  the  presence  of  God ;  and,  when  a 
congregation  pray  for  mercy  and  protection,  one  must  be  inflamed 
with  good-will  and  brotherly  love  to  all.  In  the  next  place,  the 
serious  and  devout  tone  of  mind,  inspired  by  public  worship,  sug 
gests  naturally  self-examination.  Retired  from  the  bustle  of  the 
world,  on  that  day  of  rest,  the  errors  we  have  been  guilty  of  are 
recalled  to  memory  :  we  are  afflicted  for  those  errors,  and  firmly 
resolve  to  be  more  on  our  guard  in  time  coming.  In  short,  Sun 
day  is  a  day  of  rest  from  worldly  concerns,  in  order  to  be  more 
usefully  emplo3^ed  upon  those  that  are  internal.  Sunday,  accord- 

i  Edit,  of  1845,  p.  415.  *  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,  sect  8. 

*  Spectator,  No.  112. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  433 

ingly,  is  a  day  of  account ;  and  a  candid  account  every  seventh 
day  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  great  day  of  account.  A  per 
son  who  diligently  follows  out  this  preparatory  discipline  will  sel 
dom  be  at  a  loss  to  answer  for  his  own  conduct,  called  upon  by 
God  or  man.  This  leads  me  naturally  to  condemn  the  practice 
of  abandoning  to  diversion  or  merriment  what  remains  of  Sunday 
after  public  worship,  such  as  parties  of  pleasure,  gaming,  etc.,  or 
anything  that  trifles  away  the  time  without  a  serious  thought,  as 
if  the  purpose  were  to  cancel  every  virtuous  impression  made  at 
public  worship.  Unhappily  this  salutary  institution  can  only  be 
preserved  in  vigour  during  the  days  of  piety  and  virtue.  Power 
and  opulence  are  the  darling  objects  of  every  nation  ;  and  yet,  in 
every  nation  possessed  of  power  and  opulence,  virtue  subsides, 
selfishness  prevails,  and  sensuality  becomes  the  ruling  passion. 
Then  it  is  that  the  most  sacred  institutions  first  lose  their  hold, 
next  are  disregarded,  and  at  last  are  made  a  subject  of  ridicule."1 
The  words  of  Smith,  already  employed  as  a  motto,  deserve  to  be 
again  presented.  "  The  Sabbath,"  he  said,  "  as  a  political  insti 
tution,  is  of  inestimable  value,  independently  of  its  claims  to 
Divine  authority."  And,  in  his  Letter  to  a  Member  of  the  National 
Assembly,  Burke  gave  utterance  to  these  memorable  sentences  : 
"They  who  always  labour  can  have  no  true  judgment.  You 
never  give  yourselves  time  to  cool.  You  can  never  survey  from 
its  proper  point  of  sight  the  work  you  have  finished  before  you 
decree  its  final  execution.  You  can  never  plan  the  future  by  the 
past.  These  are  among  the  effects  of  unremitted  labour,  when 
men  exhaust  their  attention,  burn  out  their  candles,  and  are  left 
in  the  dark.  Malo  meorum  negligentiam,  guam  istorum  obscuram 
diligentiam"  Next  in  order  is  Cowper,  who,  in  a  letter  to  the  Rev. 
Wm.  Unwin,  thus  fully  propounds  his  Sabbatic  views  : — "  With 
respect  to  the  advice  you  are  required  to  give  to  a  young  lady, 
that  she  may  be  properly  instructed  in  the  manner  of  keeping  the 
Sabbath,  I  just  subjoin  a  few  hints  which  have  occurred  to  me 
upon  the  occasion  ;  not  because  I  think  you  want  them,  but  be 
cause  it  would  seem  unkind  to  withhold  them.  The  Sabbath, 
then,  I  think,  may  be  considered,  first,  as  a  commandment,  no 
less  binding  upon  modern  Christians  than  upon  ancient  Jews ; 

i  Creech's  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  181. 
2    E 


434  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

because  the  spiritual  people  amongst  them  did  not  think  it 
enough  to  abstain  from  manual  occupations  on  that  day,  but, 
entering  more  deeply  into  the  meaning  of  the  precept,  allotted 
those  hours  they  took  from  the  world  to  the  cultivation  of  holi 
ness  in  their  own  souls  ;  which  ever  was,  and  ever  will  be,  a  duty 
incumbent  upon  all  who  ever  heard  of  a  Sabbath  ;  and  is  of  per 
petual  obligation  both  upon  Jews  and  Christians  (the  command 
ment  therefore  enjoins  it,  the  prophets  have  also  enforced  it,  and, 
in  many  instances,  both  scriptural  and  modern,  the  breach  of  it  has 
been  punished  with  a  providential  and  judicial  severity,  that  may 
make  bystanders  tremble)  :  secondly ',  As  a  privilege  which  you 
well  know  how  to  dilate  upon,  better  than  I  can  tell  you  ;  thirdly, 
As  a  sign  of  that  covenant,  by  which  believers  are  entitled  to  a  rest 
which  yet  remaineth  ;  fourthly,  As  the  sine  qua  non  or  neces 
sary  part  of  the  Christian  character  ;  and,  on  this  head,  I  should 
guard  against  being  misunderstood  to  mean  no  more  than  two  at 
tendances  upon  public  worship,  which  is  a  form  complied  with  by 
thousands  who  never  kept  a  Sabbath  in  their  lives.  Consistence 
is  necessary  to  give  substance  and  solidity  to  the  wrhole.  To  sanc 
tify  the  Sabbath  at  church,  and  to  trifle  it  away  out  of  church,  is 
profanation,  and  vitiates  all !  After  all,  I  could  ask  my  catechu 
men  one  short  question,  Do  you  love  the  day,  or  do  you  not  1  If 
you  love  it,  you  will  never  inquire  how  far  you  may  safely  deprive 
yourself  of  the  enjoyment  of  it.  If  you  do  not  love  it,  and  you 
find  yourself  obliged  in  conscience  to  acknowledge  it,  that  is  an 
alarming  symptom,  and  ought  to  make  you  tremble.  If  you  do  not 
love  it,  then  you  wish  it  was  over,  because  it  is  a  weariness  to 
you.  The  ideas  of  labour  and  rest  are  not  more  opposite  to  each 
other,  than  the  idea  of  a  Sabbath,  and  that  dislike  and  disgust 
with  which  it  fills  the  minds  of  thousands,  to  be  obliged  to  keep  it. 
It  is  worse  than  bodily  labour."  "  Sir  John  Shore,"  afterwards 
Lord  Teignmouth,  "  neglected  not,  amidst  the  toils  and  cares  of 
empire,  those  literary  pursuits  which  were  ever  congenial  to  his 
taste,  and  which  he  cultivated  in  the  society  of  his  friend,  Sir  W. 
Jones,  who,  like  himself,  was  the  son  of  a  widowed  mother,  whose 
maternal  solicitudes  were  amply  repaid  by  their  auspicious  results. 
On  the  death  of  that  unrivalled  Oriental  scholar,  Sir  John  Shore 
lucceeded  to  the  chair  of  the  Asiatic  Society,  and  pronounced  an 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  435 

elegant  and  luminous  eulogium  on  his  predecessor."  It  is  added, 
in  a  note,  "  How  anxiously  he  felt  in  after  years  upon  the  subject 
of  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  may  be  seen  by  a  paper  from 
his  Lordship's  pen,  which  he  addressed  to  us  for  insertion  in  our 
volume  for  1803,  p.  537,  signed  'Sunday.'  His  Lordship  makes 
Sunday  complain  of  the  grievous  neglect  shown  to  him,  in  this 
professedly  Christian  and  Protestant  country.  His  Lordship  did  not 
view  the  Christian  Sabbath  as  the  mere  creature  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  makes  it  '  derive  all  its  title  to 
consideration  from  its  Divine  origin.'  He  mentions  many  of  the 
ways  of  idleness,  business,  and  pleasure — the  last  he  calls  "  the 
devil's  allurements' — in  which  the  day  is  too  often  violated,  both 
by  the  rich  and  the  poor.  We  quote  one  passage,  which  de 
serves  to  be  seriously  considered  at  the  present  moment  :  '  I 
remark  many  of  the  poorer  classes  who  find  the  respect  which 
they  pay  to  me  (Sunday)  most  amply  rewarded,  not  merely  by 
an  exemption  from  their  daily  labours,  but  by  a  composed  frame 
of  mind,  which  is  the  natural  consequence  of  a  due  attention  to 
me.  With  many,  it  is  the  only  consolation  they  enjoy  ;  and 
I  cannot  but  therefore  deprecate  that  more  than  common  species 
of  cruelty  which  would  endeavour  to  deprive  these  poor  people, 
not  only  of  bodily  rest,  but  of  spiritual  consolation.  Of  this 
cruelty  every  man  who,  by  example,  encouragement,  or  authority, 
endeavours  to  degrade  me  in  their  estimation,  is  most  palpably 
guilty ;  and  •  whatever  he  may  think,  incurs  by  it  a  most  awful 
responsibility,  which  he  will  be  called  upon  one  day  to  answer.'  "x 
It  would  not  be  easy  to  find  a  more  comprehensive  or  more 
beautiful  tribute  to  the  Day  of  Rest  than  the  following  by  the 
biographer  of  Knox  and  Melville,  the  late  Dr.  M'Crie  : — «  The 
Sabbath  is  the  wisest  and  most  beneficent,  as  well  as  the  most 
ancient,  institute  of  heaven  ;  the  first  gift  which  God  conferred 
on  our  newly  created  parents,  and  by  which  he  continues  to 
testify  at  once  his  care  for  our  bodies  and  our  spirits,  by  provid 
ing  relaxation  for  the  one,  and  refreshment  for  the  other ;  the 
joint  memorial  of  creation  and  redemption  ;  the  token  of  God's 
residence  on  earth;  and  the  earnest  of  man's  elevation  to  heaven  ; 
an  institute  which  blends  together,  like  the  colours  of  the  rainbow, 

i  Christian  Observer  0834),  pp.  264,  265 


436  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

— itself  a  sacred  emblem, — recollections  of  the  innocence  of  our 
primeval  state,  and  the  grace  of  our  recovery,  with  anticipations 
of  the  glory  to  which  we  are  called ;  an  institute  in  the  observ 
ance  of  which  we  feel  ourselves  associated,  not  only  with  all  who 
'  in  every  region,  yea,  on  every  sea,'  believe  on  the  same 
Saviour  ;  but  also  with  holy  men,  apostles,  prophets,  and 
patriarchs,  in  every  age  since  '  men  began  to  call  on  the  name  of 
the  Lord ;'  nay,  in  which  we  are  raised  to  communion  with  the 
Father  of  our  spirits  ;  and,  by  resting  with  Him  on  the  seventh 
day,  receive  his  sacred  pledge,  that  in  labouring  and  doing  all  our 
work  on  the  six  days,  we  shall  have  that  blessing  which  alone 
maketh  rich,  and  addeth  no  sorrow."1  Let  the  eloquent  words 
of  Principal  Forbes  close  these  testimonies  :  "  One  result  of  a 
due  economy  of  time,  is  a  due  amount  of  relaxation.  He  whose 
waking  hours  are  well  occupied,  need  not  grudge  himself  a  good 
night's  rest.  His  very  holidays  are  part  of  his  economy  ;  and 
the  seventh  day  sheds  its  invigorating  influence  over  the  other 
six.  By  earnestness  in  your  studies  during  the  week,  I  advise 
you  to  reap  the  enjoyment  of  that  beneficent  provision  of  the 
Almighty,  and  by  a  sedulous  abstinence  in  thought,  as  well  as 
in  act,  from  your  occupations,  to  restore  the  tone  of  your  minds 
and  the  capacity  for  vigorous  exertion.  None  who  have  not 
made  a  strong  effort  are  aware  of  the  admirably  tranquillizing 
influence  of  twenty-four  hours  studiously  segregated  from  the 
ordinary  current  of  thought.  Monday  morning  is  the  epoch  of 
a  periodic  renovation."2 

CIVIL  ENACTMENTS. 

The  late  clerical  secretary  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  the  due 
Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  has  thus  summed  up  the  Sabbath 
laws  enacted  in  England  from  the  year  1604  :  "In  the  reign  of 
James  i.,  trading  in  boots  and  shoes  on  the  Lord's  day  is  pro 
hibited  by  law  ;  and  by  an  act  passed  in  the  first  year  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  I.,  it  was  found  necessary  to  restrain  by  a  law 
of  persons  from  various  parishes  on  the  Lord's  day. 

1  The  Witness,  Aug.  28, 1861. 

1  Rev.  D.  C.  A.  Agnew's  Occasional  Paptn  on  Sabbath  Observance.    No.  1 J. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  437 

And  in  the  second  year  of  the  same  king,  travelling  of  carriages 
is  prohibited.  We  can  easily  conceive  how  inconsistent  with  such 
legislation  must  have  appeared  to  his  subjects  the  re-issuing,  on 
the  part  of  the  king,  of  the  Book  of  Sports  of  his  father,  which 
virtually  encouraged  what  the  Act  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign 
pronounced  unlawful.  The  Act  of  the  29th  Ch.  n.  c.  7,  is  a 
very  important  one,  still  in  force,  and  needing  only  some  amend 
ments,  chiefly  as  regards  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  the  penal 
ties,  to  render  it  efficient.  It  prohibits  the  following  of  ordinary 
callings,  and  enjoins  upon  all,  publicly  and  privately,  to  exercise 
themselves  in  the  duties  of  piety  and  true  religion.  The  Act  2 1 
Geo.  in.  c.  40  has  proved  a  highly  beneficial  law,  in  preventing 
places  of  amusement  being  opened  for  payment  of  money  on  the 
Lord's  Day.  Bishop  Porteus  was  the  first  who  suggested  the 
necessity  of  an  Act  of  this  nature,  in  order  to  suppress  assem 
blages  of  an  immoral  and  irreligious  tendency  on  the  Lord's  day. 
The  Act,  though  stringent  and  efficient  for  its  purposes,  is  evaded 
with  impunity  in  London,  persons  being  admitted  to  public  gar 
dens  by  means  of  refreshment  tickets  purchased  on  the  ordinary 
days  of  the  week.  In  the  reign  of  George  iv.,  and  subsequently 
at  different  times,  Acts  were  passed  regulating  inns,  taverns,  etc., 
on  the  Lord's  day.  It  is  to  be  hoped  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  the  law  will  require  them  to  be  closed  wholly  on  the  Lord's 
day,  with  such  exceptions  as  charity  may  require  ;  for  it  is  now 
an  established  fact,  that  crime  increases  in  the  same  degree 
in  which  public-houses  are  allowed  to  be  opened  on  the  Lord's 
day.  The  Act  3  and  4  William  iv.  is  deserving  of  special 
notice.  It  enables  the  election  of  officers  of  corporations,  formerly 
required  to  be  held  on  the  Lord's  day,  to  be  held  on  Saturday  or 
Monday.  It  is  the  Act  of  the  late  Sir  Andrew  Agnew,  and  way 
passed  in  1833.  The  bill  was  drawn  up  by  Mr.  George  Eochfort 
Clarke  ;  the  preamble  of  it  is  important,  for  it  asserts  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  the  Legislature  to  remove  as  much  as  possible  impediments 
to  the  due  observance  of  the  Lord's  day.  Imperfect  as  is  our  legis 
lation  on  the  subject  of  the  Lord's  day,  yet  it  has  proved  a 
mighty  barrier  to  keep  out  the  tide  of  profanation  of  the  day  with 
which  the  love  of  gain  and  of  pleasure,  more  than  of  God,  would 
otherwise  have  inundated  us  ;  it  has  also  proved  highly  protective 


438  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOEY. 

to  society  in  general,  in  securing  to  a  population  the  most  active, 
industrious,  and  hard- worked  in  Europe,  the  privilege  of  one  day 
in  seven  for  religious  instruction  and  rest."1 

Of  the  civil  enactments  in  Scotland  relative  to  the  Sabbath,  and 
belonging  to  the  years  1661,  1672,  1693,  1695,  and  1701,  the 
late  Lord  President  Blair  said,  in  1823,  "By  these  Statutes,  every 
person  guilty  of  profaning  the  Sabbath-day  in  any  manner  what 
ever,  is  made  liable  in  a  pecuniary  penalty,  toties  quoties,  to  be 
recovered,  by  prosecution  before  sheriffs,  justices  of  peace,  or  any 
other  judge  ordinary.  And  the  minister  of  every  parish,  the  kirk- 
session,  or  the  presbytery,  or  a  person  named  by  them,  is  entitled 
to  prosecute.  There  appears,  therefore,  to  be  no  defect  in  the 
law  as  it  stands,  if  duly  executed." 

ECCLESIASTICAL  COUNSELS. 

Turning  to  the  practical  teachings  on  our  subject  with  which 
this  nation  has  been  blessed,  we  begin  with  a  few  sentences  taken 
from  the  Homily  «  Of  the  Place  and  Time  for  Prayer  : "  "  God's 
obedient  people  should  use  the  Sunday  holily,  and  rest  from  their 
common  and  daily  business,  and  also  give  themselves  wholly  to 
heavenly  exercises  of  God's  true  religion  and  service."  "  God's 
people  hath  always,  in  all  ages,  without  "any  gainsaying,  used  to 
come  together  upon  the  Sunday,  to  celebrate  and  honour  the 
Lord's  blessed  name,  and  carefully  to  keep  that  day  in  holy  rest 
and  quietness,  both  man,  woman,  child,  servant,  and  stranger." 
"  Wherefore,  0  ye  people  of  God,  lay  your  hands  upon  your 
hearts,  repent  and  amend  this  grievous  and  dangerous  wickedness 
[profaning  the  day  by  riding,  marketing,  labour,  rioting,  and  ex 
cess],  stand  in  awe  of  the  commandment  of  God,  gladly  follow 
the  example  of  God  himself,  be  not  disobedient  to  the  godly  order 
of  Christ's  church,  used  and  kept  from  the  apostles'  time  until 
this  day.  Fear  the  displeasure  and  just  plagues  of  Almighty 
God,  if  ye  be  negligent  and  forbear  not  labouring  and  travelling  on 
the  Sabbath-day  or  Sunday,  and  do  not  resort  together  to  celebrate 
and  magnify  God's  blessed  name  in  quiet  holiness  and  godly  re- 
Verence." 

1  Hitt.  of  the  Sdb.t  by  the  Rev.  John  Baylee,  pp.  134-186. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  439 

The  following  are  the  more  copious  instructions  of  the  West 
minster  Assembly  on  "the  Sanctificatiou  of  the  Lord's  day  :" — 

"  The  Lord's  day  ought  to  be  BO  remembered  beforehand,  as 
that  all  worldly  business  of  our  ordinary  callings  may  be  so 
ordered,  and  so  timely  and  seasonably  laid  aside,  as  they  may 
not  be  impediments  to  the  due  sanctifying  of  the  day  when  it 
comes. 

"  The  whole  day  is  to  be  celebrated  as  holy  to  the  Lord,  both 
in  public  and  private,  as  being  the  Christian  Sabbath.  To  which 
end,  it  is  requisite,  that  there  be  a  holy  cessation  or  resting  all 
that  day  from  all  unnecessary  labours  ;  and  an  abstaining,  not  only 
from  all  sports  and  pastimes,  but  also  from  all  worldly  words  and 
thoughts. 

"  That  the  diet  on  that  day  be  so  ordered,  as  that  neither  ser 
vants  be  unnecessarily  detained  from  the  public  worship  of  God, 
nor  any  other  person  hindered  from  the  sanctifying  that  day. 

"  That  there  be  private  preparations  of  every  person  and  family, 
by  prayer  for  themselves,  and  for  God's  assistance  of  the  minister, 
and  for  a  blessing  upon  his  ministry ;  and  by  such  other  holy 
exercises,  as  may  further  dispose  them  to  a  more  comfortable  com 
munion  with  God  in  his  public  ordinances. 

"  That  all  the  people  meet  so  timely  for  public  worship, 
that  the  whole  congregation  may  be  present  at  the  beginning,  and 
with  one  heart  solemnly  join  together  in  all  parts  of  the  public 
worship,  and  not  depart  till  after  the  blessing. 

"  That  what  time  is  vacant,  between  or  after  the  solemn  meet 
ings  of  the  congregation  in  public,  be  spent  in  reading,  meditation, 
repetition  of  sermons  ;  especially  by  calling  their  families  to  an 
account  of  what  they  have  heard,  and  catechising  of  them,  holy 
conferences,  prayer  for  a  blessing  upon  the  public  ordinances,  sing 
ing  of  psalms,  visiting  the  sick,  relieving  the  poor,  and  such  like 
duties  of  piety,  charity,  and  mercy,  accounting  the  Sabbath  a 
delight." 

In  adopting  the  preceding  document,  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  added  to  it  a  "  Directory  for  Family  Wor 
ship."  "  On  the  -Lord's  day,  after  every  one  of  the  family  apart, 
and  the  whole  family  together,  have  sought  the  Lord  (in  whose 
hands  the  preparation  of  men's  hearts  is),  to  fit  them  for  the  public 


440  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

worship,  and  to  bless  to  them  the  public  ordinances,  the  master 
of  the  family  ought  to  take  care  that  all  within  his  charge  repair 
to  the  public  worship,  that  he  and  they  may  join  with  the  rest 
of  the  congregation  :  and  the  public  worship  being  finished,  after 
prayer,  he  should  take  an  account  what  they  have  heard  ;  and 
thereafter,  to  spend  the  rest  of  the  time  which  they  may  spare 
in  catechising,  and  in' spiritual  conferences  upon  the  Word  of  God  : 
or  else  (going  apart)  they  ought  to  apply  themselves  to  reading, 
meditation,  and  secret  prayer,  that  they  may  confirm  and  increase 
their  communion  with  God  :  that  so  the  profit  which  they  found 
in  the  public  ordinances  may  be  cherished  and  preserved,  and  they 
more  edified  unto  eternal  life." 

The  United  Secession  Church,  which  has  since  coalesced  with 
the  Relief  body,  under  the  name  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  gave  forth  along  with  her  statement  of  principles  a  warn 
ing  against  practical  evils,  which  thus  deals  with  the  evil  of  Sab 
bath  desecration  :  "  Another  indication  and  form  of  impiety,  is 
the  lamentably  extensive  profanation  of  the  Sabbath, — by  parties  of 
pleasure,  by  unnecessary  travelling,  by  the  transaction  of  business, 
and  by  devoting  the  day  to  mere  bodily  recreation.  To  what  de 
vices  do  many  resort  for  the  purpose  of  evading  the  laws  which 
have  been  wisely  and  justly  enacted  to  secure  its  external  observ 
ance  !  and  how  is  the  authority  of  the  Divine  precept  disregarded 
by  those  who  privately  appropriate  this  sacred  portion  of  time  to 
the  assorting  of  accounts,  writing  letters  of  business,  and  other 
arrangements  as  to  secular  affairs  !  The  precept  is  as  really,  and 
sometimes  as  grossly,  violated  by  the  carnal,  and  altogether  unbe 
coming  conversation  too  prevalent  among  those  who  make  other 
and  higher  professions.  We  cannot  too  strongly  reprobate  the 
practice  of  limiting  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  to  the  hours  of 
public  worship,  and  forthwith,  as  if  no  further  obligation  existed, 
indulging  in  feasting,  visiting,  walking,  amusements,  the  reading 
of  profane  authors,  and  of  newspapers,  and  the  prosecution  of  se 
cular  studies.  Ought  religion  to  be  deemed  a  labour  to  be  as 
slightly  undergone,  and  as  speedily  dispatched  as  possible  ?  Hov 
criminal  every  attempt  to  rob  the  Most  High  of  what,  in  a  liberal 
grant  to  man,  he  hath  appropriated  to  himself !  No  recreation  can 
be  lawful  on  the  Sabbath,  but  what  accords  with  the  principal  de- 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  441 

sign  of  the  day,  which  is  manifestly  to  rest  with  God  in  the  delighted 
contemplation  of  his  glory  as  displayed  in  the  works  of  nature,  but 
especially  in  the  mystery  of  redemption  ;  and  to  render  to  him  the 
homage  he  requires.  It  is  thus  only  we  are  fitted  for  returning  to 
the  business  of  life,  under  pious  impressions,  and  prepared  for  that 
Sabbath,  when  bodily  recreation  shall  be  no  longer  needful.  So 
far  from  tolerating  the  least  encroachment  on  that  sacred  day,  the 
Scriptures  condemn  the  very  disposition  to  say,  *  What  a  weari 
ness  is  it,  when  will  the  Sabbath  be  over/  that  we  may  return  to 
our  secular  employments  1  Amos  viii.  5  ;  Mai.  i.  1 3,  1 4.  Both 
spiritual  and  temporal  prosperity  are,  by  the  promise  of  Him  who 
alone  can  bestow  them,  connected  with  due  respect  to  the  Sabbath. 
Isa.lvi.  2-7;  Iviii.  13,  14."1 

From  the  Laws  and '  Regulations  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists, 
in  which  there  are  several  directions  concerning  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day,  we  select  one  addressed  to  the  Chairmen  of  Dis 
tricts  :  "  Let  us  earnestly  exhort  our  societies  to  make  the  best 
and  most  religious  use  of  the  rest  and  leisure  of  the  Lord's  day  : 
let  us  admonish  any  individuals  who  shall  be  found  to  neglect  our 
public  worship,  under  pretence  of  visiting  the  sick  or  other  simi 
lar  engagements  :  let  us  show  to  our  people  the  evil  of  ivasting 
those  portions  of  the  Sabbath,  which  are  not  spent  in  public  wor 
ship,  in  visits  or  in  receiving  company,  to  the  neglect  of  private 
prayer,  of  the  perusal  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  family  duties,  and, 
often  to  the  serious  spiritual  injury  of  servants,  who  are  thus  im 
properly  employed,  and  deprived  of  the  public  means  of  grace  ; 
let  us  set  an  example  in  this  matter,  by  refusing  for  ourselves  and 
for  our  families,  to  spend  in  visits,  when  there  is  no  call  of  duty 
or  necessity,  the  sacred  hours  of  the  Holy  Sabbath  ;  and  let  us 
never  allow  the  Lord's  day  to  be  secularized  by  meetings  of  mere 
business,  when  such  business  refers  only  to  the  temporal  affairs  of 
the  Church  of  God."2 

1  Testimony,  pp.  167,  168. 

3  Warren's  Digest  of  the  Laws  and  Regulationt  of  fh»  Wesleyan  Methciiistl,  p.  77. 


442  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTOEY. 

PRACTICAL  MEASURES. 

It  has  been  too  characteristic  of  the  Continental  churches  and 
people  to  allow  their  Sabbatic  doctrine  and  laws  to  slumber  in 
their  Confessions  and  statute-books.  This  has  been  too  much  the 
case  at  home,  but  still  more  abroad.  In  England,  there  have  al 
ways  been  men  who  have  endeavoured  to  carry  out  their  principles 
into  measures  for  promoting  the  observance,  and  remedying  the 
desecration  of  a  day  which  they  reverenced  and  loved.  The  Puri 
tans  ;  their  evangelical  successors  within  and  without  the  pale  of 
the  Church  ;  and  the  Methodists,  have  been  the  means  of  preserv 
ing  true  religion,  including  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  in  the 
land.  They  have  employed  for  this  purpose  the  pulpit  and  the 
press,  and  in  their  families  and  neighbourhoods,  private  instruc 
tion,  and  the  silent  influence  of  holy  example.  Scotland  has  been 
no  less  favoured  with  the  practical  measures  by  which  her  creed 
has  been  prevented  from  becoming  a  dead  letter.  John  Knox  gave 
the  impulse,  which  the  Melvilles,  Welch,  and  others,  carried  on 
and  increased.1  The  immediate  successors  of  the  great  reformer, 
and  the  Covenanters  struggled,  as  did  the  Puritans,  for  Sabbatic 
rights  and  privileges  in  times  of  danger  and  persecution.  The 
number  of  Acts  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  on  this  subject 
is  very  great,  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  M'Farkne,  who  supplies  instances, 
from  1638  to  1708,  and  adds,  "From"  these  specimens  of  Acts 
of  Assembly,  it  will  be  seen  how  the  Church  availed  herself  of  the 
aid  which  the  laws  afforded  for  the  suppression  of  gross  breaches 
of  the  Sabbath.  To  show,  however,  that  these  venerable  fathers 
of  the  Church,  and  chief  framers  of  the  habits  of  our  country  de 
pended  not  merely,  or  even  chiefly,  on  police  regulations,  for  carry 
ing  their  ends  into  effect,  we  have  only  now  to  turn  to  the  means 
which  they  employed  for  the  suppression  of  profanity  [profane- 
ness]  in  general."2  The  means  urged  for  this  purpose  were  that 

i  See  Booke  of  the  Universatt  Kirk  of  Scotland,  p.  344,  for  evidence  of  the  faithfulness 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  calling  to  account  certain  nobles  of  the  land  on  the  subject 
of  Sabbath-breaking,  and  of  the  gratifying  success  which  attended  their  measures.  At 
a  later  period,  the  session-records  of  Ayr  bear  testimony  to  the  vigilant  care  of  John 
Welch  to  have  the  institution  sanctified  in  that  town.  We  trust,  that  a  satisfactory 
"  life"  of  this  remarkable  man,  which  has  employed  the  con  amore  labours  of  our  friend, 
the  Rev.  James  Young  of  Edinburgh,  will  be  forthcoming  at  no  distant  date. 

*  Treatise  on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  pp.  258,  262. 


AFTER  THE  REFOEMATION.  443 

ministers  should  be  "  much  in  prayer  and  supplication  on  account 
of  these  evils,"  that  they  "  preach  plainly  and  faithfully  against" 
them,  that  they  "  deal  earnestly  and  much  with  the  consciences 
of  evil-doers,"  that  "  Church  judicatories  do  faithfully  exercise 
church  discipline  against  all  such  scandalous  offenders,"  that 
"  ministers  and  elders  take  care  that  the  worship  of  God  be  per 
formed  in  each  family"  under  their  care,  and  that  "  all  prudence 
and  meekness  of  wisdom,  along  with  fidelity,  be  shown"  in  the 
use  of  the  various  expedients  for  the  reclamation  of  the  erring. 
The  churches  that  at  various  times  disconnected  themselves  from 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  while,  as  we  have  already  seen,  they  re 
tained  her  doctrine  respecting  the  Sabbath,  have  strenuously  sought 
to  secure  for  it  due  regard  and  honour. 

In  the  present  century  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath,  imitating 
the  example  of  the  promoters  of  Bible  circulation  and  of  mis 
sions,  have  resorted  to  the  new  form  of  associated  effort  outside 
the  walls  of  their  respective  churches  for  vindicating  the  claims, 
and  advancing  the  interests  of  an  institution,  in  regard  to  the 
Divine  authority  and  indispensable  importance  of  which  they 
were  agreed.  In  1831,  the  Society  for  promoting  the  due 
observance  of  the  Lord's  day  was  formed  in  London.  "  In  all 
the  movements  in  reference  to  the  Sabbath,  which  have  been 
made  since  its  formation,  it  has  taken  a  prominent,"  and  we 
may  add,  an  energetic  "  part."  "  The  continually  increasing 
desecration  of  the  Lord's  day  in  Scotland  led  to  the  formation," 
in  1847,  of  the  Sabbath  Alliance,  designed  to  embrace  the  whole 
of  that  division  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  having  for  its  basis, 
"  the  Divine  authority  and  universal  and  perpetual  obligation  of 
the  Sabbath,  as  declared  at  large  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  more 
formally  and  particularly  in  the  Fourth  Commandment  of  the 
Moral  Law."  By  its  publications,  public  meetings,  the  visits  to 
the  country  of  its  agents,  its  exertions  against  Sabbath  profana 
tion,  by  means  of  railways,  the  post-office,  the  traffic  in  liquor, 
baking,  and  other  practices,  it  has  rendered  important  service  to 
the  cause  of  religion.  A  society  in  Glasgow  having  the  same 
object  has  also  been  successful.  When  the  appeal,  as  mentioned 
in  pp.  167,  168,  was  responded  to  by  1045  working  men,  who 
competed  for  the  prizes  offered  to  their  class  for  the  three  best 


444  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

essays  on  the  "  temporal  advantages  of  the  Sabbath,"  seventy  of 
the  writers  were  Glasgow  men.  These  seventy  met  in  the  year 
1849,  and  formed  themselves  into  "The  Glasgow  Working 
Men's  Sabbath  Protection  Association."  Their  object  was  to  de 
fend  the  Sabbath  against  all  unnecessary  encroachments  on  its 
sacred  time,  and,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  object,  they  were  to 
avail  themselves  of  every  means  sanctioned  by  Christian  prin 
ciple,  especially  sermons,  lectures,  addresses  at  public  meetings, 
and  the  circulation  of  tracts  and  pamphlets  bearing  on  the  sub 
ject.  They  have  laboured  assiduously  to  prevent  or  remove 
various  forms  of  Sabbath  desecration  connected  with  railways, 
the  post-office,  the  Sydenham  Palace,  the  British  Museum,  the 
employment  of  cabs  and  carriages,  the  opening  of  shops  for  the 
transaction  of  ordinary  business,  Sunday  steamers,  and  the  liquor 
traffic.  We  have  much  pleasure  in  quoting  a  sentence  or  two 
from  a  letter,  addressed  in  1858,  by  their  President,  at  that  time 
Mr.  James  Lemon,  in  name  of  the  Association,  to  Lord  Stanley, 
when  a  petition  of  certain  savans  prayed  the  Government  to  open 
various  places  of  amusement  for  public  exhibition  on  the  Lord's 
day  :  "  We  beg  most  respectfully  to  state  that  aggressions  such 
as  these  which  your  Lordship  is  attempting  to  make  on  the  day 
of  rest  have  been  the  very  means  of  banding  us  together  for  the 
protection  of  our  inalienable  birthright  to  rest  one  day  in  seven  ; 
and  it  pains  and  alarms  us  when  we  hear  of  a  peer  of  the  realm 
endeavouring  to  annihilate  the  very  principles  which  his  ancestors 
in  the  worst  of  times  so  nobly  defended.  And  we  consider  that 
we  are  in  duty  bound  at  this  crisis,  to  remonstrate  with  your  Lord 
ship,  by  declaring  that  we  repudiate  all  systematic  and  predeter 
mined  labour,  however  amusing  it  may  be,  if  it  enslaves  our  neigh 
bours  on  the  Sabbath  day,  inasmuch  as  all  such  labour  undermines 
the  Word  of  God,  the  grand  basis  of  Sabbath  preservation,  and  tends 
to  foster  principles  which  sap  the  foundations  of  domestic  virtue, 
true  piety,  and  national  prosperity."  Various  other  associations, 
in  England  and  Scotland,  have  contributed  to  the  advancement  of 
the  great  cause  of  Sabbath  observance  ;  but  they  are  too  numer 
ous  for  specific  mention. 

No  one  who  truly  regards  the  weekly  holy  day  himself,  will  be 
Indifferent  to  its  desecration,  or  unwilling  to  employ  his  influence 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  446 

for  remedying  the  evil.  But  there  are  individuals,  who  from 
their  better  opportunities,  their  greater  ability,  or  more  fervent 
zeal,  have  rendered  a  wider  or  more  enduring  service  to  the 
institution  than  others  have  accomplished,  and  who  are  there 
fore  entitled  to  our  special  grateful  commemoration.  Such  men 
have  been  a  Knox,  a  Greenham,  a  Bownd,  a  Twisse,  a  Young, 
an  Owen,  a  Durham,  a  Willison.  Such  too,  have  been  Bishop 
Porteus,  Holden,  Bishop  Blomfield,  Dr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Joseph 
Wilson,  Sir  Andrew  Agnew,  the  Rev.  William  Leake  and  the 
Rev.  John  Davies,  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  John  Henderson, 
Esq.,  of  Park,  and  Mr.  Peter  Drummond  of  Stirling. 

OBSERVANCE. 

The  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  family  is  one  of  the 
best  evidences  of  the  influence  of  its  doctrine,  and  yet  is  itself  one 
of  the  most  effectual  measures  for  extending  its  beneficial  power, 
a  measure  second  only  to  that  which  is  wielded  from  the  pulpit. 
Let  us  present  a  brief  account  of  instances  in  which  the  Sabbath 
has  shed  its  purity  and  peace  in  the  dwellings  of  our  people. 

From  a  number  of  contemporary  examples  we  select  one  from 
a  situation  in  life  very  far  from  being  favourable  to  a  holy  rest. 
Lord  Harrington  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-two  in  1 6 1 3,  only 
a  few  years  before  the  is*suing  of  the  Book  of  Sports.  This  young 
nobleman  "  usually  rose  every  morning  at  five,  and  sometimes  at 
four.  When  he  first  waked,  his  constant  care  was  to  cultivate 
communion  with  God,  by  offering  up  the  first-fruits  of  the  day 
and  of  his  thoughts  to  the  uncreated  Majesty.  So  soon  as  dressed, 
he  endeavoured  to  put  his  heart  in  tune  for  family  worship,  by 
reading  a  portion  of  Scripture  ;  after  which,  he  prayed  with  his 
servants.  This  duty  concluded,  he  spent  about  an  hour  in  read 
ing  some  valuable  book,  calculated  to  inform  his  understanding, 
and  to  animate  his  graces.  Calvin's  Institutions  and  Mr.  Rogers's 
Treatise  were  among  the  performances  which  he  highly  esteemed, 
and  which  he  carefully  studied.  Before  dinner  and  before  supper 
his  family  were  called  together  to  wait  on  God  in  reading,  singing, 
and  prayer.  After  supper,  prayer  was  repeated."  ...  On  the 
Lord's  day,  "  after  evening  sermon,  two  of  his  servants  repeated 
in  the  family,  before  supper,  the  substance  of  that  and  the  mom- 

20 


446  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

ing  discourse,  from  notes  which  they  had  written  at  the  times  of 
preaching ;  and  so  great  was  his  memory,  that  he  himself  would 
usually  repeat  more  than  they  had  committed  to  writing.  He 
then  entered  the  heads  and  principal  passages  of  each  sermon,  in 
a  plain  paper  book  which  he  kept  for  that  purpose,  and  afterwards 
dismissed  his  domestics  with  prayer,  in  which  he  had  a  very  ex 
traordinary  gift."1 

The  same  spirit  reigns  half  a  century  thereafter  in  the  domestic 
circle  at  Broad  Oak,  and  in  many  families  about  that  time,  both 
while  they  were  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  when  they  had 
been  ejected  from  its  communion.  The  distinguished  commenta 
tor,  Matthew  Henry,  has  given  the  following  interesting  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  Sabbath  was  spent  in  his  father's 
house.  "  The  Lord's  day  he  (the  Kev.  Philip  Henry)  called  and 
counted  the  queen  of  days,  the  pearl  of  the  week,  and  observed 
it  accordingly.  The  Fourth  Commandment  intimates  a  special 
regard  to  be  had  to  the  Sabbath  in  families  :  '  thou  and  thy  son, 
and  thy  daughter,  etc.'  '  It  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  in 
all  your  dwellings.'  In  this,  therefore,  he  was  very  exact,  and 
abounded  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  in  his  family  on  that  day. 
Whatever  were  the  circumstances  of  his  public  opportunities 
(which  varied,  as  we  shall  find  afterwards},  his  family  religion  was 
the  same  :  extraordinary  sacrifices  must  never  supersede  the  con 
tinual  burnt-offering  and  his  meat-offering,  Num.  xxviii.  15.  His 
common  salutation  of  his  family  or  friends  on  the  Lord's  day  in 
the  morning,  was  that  of  the  primitive  Christians  :  *  The  Lord  is 
risen,  he  is  risen  indeed ; '  making  it  his  chief  business  on  that 
day  to  celebrate  the  memory  of  Christ's  resurrection  ;  and  he 
would  say  sometimes,  '  Every  Lord's  day  is  a  true  Christian's 
Easter-day.'  He  took  care  to  have  his  family  ready  early  on 
that  day,  and  was  larger  in  exposition  and  prayer  on  Sabbath 
mornings  than  on  other  days.  He  would  often  remember,  that 
under  the  law  the  daily  sacrifice  was  doubled  on  Sabbath  days, 
two  lambs  in  the  morning,  and  two  in  the  evening.  He  had 
always  a  particular  subject  for  his  expositions  on  Sabbath  morn 
ings,  the  harmony  of  the  evangelists  several  times  over,  the  Scrip 
ture  prayers,  Old  Testament  prophecies  of  Christ,  *  Christ  the 

1  Toplarly's  Works,  (1837),  pp.  469,  470. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  447 

true  treasure '  (so  he  entitled  that  subject),  '  sought  and  found 
in  the  Old  Testament.'  He  constantly  sung  a  Psalin  after  dinner, 
and  another  after  supper  on  the  Lord's  days.  And  in  the  even 
ing  of  the  day  his  children  and  servants  were  catechized  and  ex 
amined  in  the  sense  and  meaning  of  the  answers  in  the  catechism, 
that  they  might  not  say  it  (as  he  used  to  tell  them)  like  a  parrot, 
by  rote.  Then  the  day's  sermons  were  repeated,  commonly  by 
one  of  his  children  when  they  were  grown  up,  and  while  they 
were  with  him  ;  and  the  family  gave  an  account  what  they  could 
remember  of  the  word  of  the  day,  which  he  endeavoured  to  fasten 
upon  them,  as  a  nail  in  a  sure  place.  In  his  prayers  on  the 
evening  of.  the  Sabbath,  he  was  often  more  than  ordinarily  en 
larged,  as  one  that  found  not  only  God's  service  perfect  freedom, 
but  his  work  its  own  wages,  and  a  great  reward,  not  only  after 
keeping,  but  (as  he  used  to  observe  from  Ps.  xix.  1 1)  in  keeping 
God's  commandments — a  present  reward  of  obedience  in  obedience. 
In  that  prayer  he  was  usually  very  particular,  in  praying  for  his 
family  and  all  that  belonged  to  it.  It  was  a  prayer  he  often  put 
up,  that  we  might  have  grace  to  carry  it  as  a  minister,  and  a 
minister's  wife,  and  a  minister's  children,  and  a  minister's  ser 
vant  should  carry  it,  that  the  ministry  might  in  nothing  be  blamed. 
He  would  sometimes  be  a  particular  intercessor  for  the  towns  and 
parishes  adjacent.  How  have  I  heard  him,  when  he  hath  been 
in  the  mount  with  God,  in  a  Sabbath  evening  prayer,  wrestle  with 
the  Lord  for  Chester,  and  Shrewsbury,  and  Nantwich,  and  Wrex- 
ham,  and  Whitchurch,  etc.,  those  nests  of  souls,  wherein  there  are 
so  many  that  cannot  discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their 
left  in  spiritual  things,  etc.  He  closed  his  Sabbath  work  in  his 
family  with  singing  Ps.  cxxxiv.,  and  after  it  a  solemn  blessing."1 
Another  half-century  elapses,  and  the  excellent  Dr.  Doddridge 
is  found  walking  in  the  steps  of  Philip  Henry  :  "  The  Lord's  day 
was  most  strictly  and  religiously  observed  in  his  family  ;  and 
after  the  public  and  domestic  services  of  it,  he  often  took  them 
[his  pupils]  separately  into  his  study,  conversed  with  them  con 
cerning  the  state  of  religion  in  their  souls,  and  gave  them  suitable 
advice.  Often  on  the  Lord's-day  evening  he  discoursed  seriously 
with  them  [his  servants]  by  themselves,  and  prayed  with  them."  a 

1  *4/«  of  Jtf>  Plilip  Henry,  pp.  7-t-Tfi.  s  Life,  by  Orton,  pp.  98,  138. 


448  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

Dr.  R.  W.  Hamilton  has  in  eloquent  strain  described  the  old 
Puritan  Sabbath  with  its  domestic  devotions  morning  and  evening 
— and  its  public  assemblies  and  worship.  Of  the  latter,  he  says, 
"  Sermons  full  of  thought  and  powerful  in  application,  having 
much  unity  and  closeness,  with  doctrine  raised  and  improvement 
enforced,  repaid  the  long-exacted  attention.  They  knew  not  our 
miscellany  of  vocal  praise,  but  breathed  their  gratitude  and  adora 
tion  through  the  strains  of  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel.  Public 
prayer  was  systematic,  still  various,  abounding  in  intercession, 
such  as  the  minister's  closet  had  indited,  and  his  heart  had  already 
made  his  own."  Referring  to  the  Sabbath  evening  counsels  of 
a  father  and  the  instructions  of  a  mother,  to  the  catechism  heard 
and  the  preaching  reviewed,  he  observes,  "  That  made  their  gener 
ations  strong.  .  .  .  Thus  were  they  trained  and  formed.  ...  In 
the  change  of  all  this  we  are  weak."  He  adds,  "  Some  of  us 
knew  the  likenesses  well.  We  have  seen  the  counterparts.  These 
customs  had  come  down  to  us.  Such  were  the  families  to  which 
birth  added  us.  Such  were  our  fathers,  and  such  the  mothers  who 
bore  us.  We.  declaim  no  inventions,  we  draw  no  pictures,  we 
speak  no  unknown  things.  In  them  was  reflected  the  Puritan  race. 
In  them  those  saints  revived  and  stood  up  once  more.  In  this 
resemblance  but  little  degenerated,  we  may  measure  their  worth, 
and  as  by  a  personal  observation,  fully  know  their  doctrine,  manner 
of  life,  purpose,  faith,  long-suffering,  charity,  patience."1 

We  have  quoted,  in  p.  226,  part  of  a  description  of  an  English 
Sabbath,  as  it  was  passed  at  a  later  period,,  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  that  a  sacred  weekly  day  holily  spent  is  not  a  day  of 
gloom.  We  now  give  a  few  more  sentences.  "  It  was  a  day 
truly  honourable  in  our  eyes,  and  marked  as  a  season  of  sacred 
delights.  Its  various  exercises,  whether  public  or  private,  pro 
duced  an  exhilarating  effect  upon  our  minds,  and  never  failed  to 
set  us  some  paces  nearer  the  object  of  our  supreme  desires.  It 
was  a  kind  of  transfiguration-day,  shedding  a  mild  glory  upon 
every  creature,  and  enabling  us  to  view  the  concerns  of  time  in 
connexion  with  those  of  eternity.  .  .  .  Many  a  joyful  Sabbath 
have  we  thus  spent  together,  especially  during  the  latter  years  of 
our  Joshua's  continuance  with  us.  And  now  when  his  mother 

1  Horae  et  Vindunte  Sabbat,  pp.  183,  185,  187. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  44:9 

and  I  are  disposed,  on  the  return  of  these  sacred  seasons,  to  look 
with  regret  towards  his  vacant  place,  we  endeavour  to  animate 
each  other  with  the  hope  of  shortly  following  our  dearest  son  to 
the  celebration  of  that  eternal  Sabbath  above,  of  which  we  have 
enjoyed  so  many  sweet  anticipations  here  below."1 

It  is  said  of  the  late  Princess  Charlotte  and  her  husband,  Prince 
Leopold,  "  Their  whole  domestic  habits  were  marked  by  sobriety 
and  virtue.  Kespect  for  the  Lord's  day  formed  a  prominent  fea 
ture  in  their  domestic  arrangements.  Divine  service  was  re 
gularly  attended  ;  and  the  evening  hours  of  the  sacred  day  were 
employed  in  the  perusal  of  pious  writings,  or  in  other  exercises 
suited  to  its  design."2 

We  add  a  few  illustrations  of  a  domestic  Sabbath,  as  it  once 
existed,  and  still  exists  in  Scotland.  Ruddiman,  the  distinguished 
grammarian,  printer,  and  librarian  of  the  Advocates'  Library,  "was 
frugal  of  his  time,  and  moderate,  both  in  his  pleasures  and  amuse 
ments.  His  day  was  usually  employed  in  the  following  manner. 
He  rose  early,  and  devoted  the  morning  to  study.  During  the 
sitting  of  the  Court  of  Session,  he  used  to  attend  the  Advocates' 
Library  from  ten  till  three.  He  commonly  retired  from  dinner  at 
four,  except  when  it  was  necessary  to  show  respect  to  friends. 
His  evenings  were  generally  spent  in  conversation  with  the 
learned.  During  the  decline  of  his  age,  when  an  amanuensis  be 
came  requisite,  his  day  was  spent  somewhat  differently.  His  first 
act  of  the  morning  was  to  kneel  down,  while  his  amanuensis  read 
prayers.  He  lived  chiefly  in  his  library.  A  basin  of  tea  was 
brought  him  for  his  breakfast ;  he  dined  about  two  o'clock  ;  and 
tea  was  again  sent  in  to  him  a  little  after  four.  His  amanuensis 
generally  read  to  him  seven  hours  a  day,  Sunday  alone  excepted, 
which,  in  the  presence  of  his  family,  and  with  the  help  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Harper,  was  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God."3  Of  Pro 
fessor  Lawson  of  Selkirk  it  is  said  by  Dr.  Belfrage,  "  So  different 
was  his  conduct  from  the  common  practice  of  indulging  longer  in 
sleep  on  the  Sabbath  morning  than  on  others,  that  he  rose  earlier, 
and  made  his  family  do  so.  His  domestic  instructions  and  prayers 

1  Gilpin'a  Monument  of  Parental  Affection,  quoted  in  Gilfillan's  Essay  on  tht  Sa  Kc,'i#* 
tation  of  the  Lord's  Day  (9th  Edit.),  p.  124,  etc. 
'  Sermon  by  Dr.  John  Campbell  of  Edinburgh  (1817),  p.  14.  *  Life,  p.  27d. 

2  F 


450  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

were  never  hurried  over,  but  discharged  as  a  duty,  felt  to  be  plead 
ing  as  well  as  solemn.  Of  Fisher's  Catechism  he  had  a  very  high 
opinion,  made  his  young  people  read  portions  of  it  again  and  again 
with  great  care,  and  meditate  on  them,  and  he  then  examined  them 
as  to  their  conceptions  of  its  meaning,  and  the  impressions  which 
it  should  produce.  There  was  a  circumstance  in  his  family  instruc 
tion  which  showed  his  admirable  skill,  and  which  rendered  it 
most  delightful  to  the  young  ;  with  his  questions  and  counsels 
he  mingled  appropriate  anecdotes,  exhibiting  the  pleasures  of  reli 
gion,  God's  care  of  His  saints,  the  beauty  of  early  piety,  the  happi 
ness  of  the  family  whose  God  is  the  Lord,  how  the  fear  of 
God  operates  as  a  preservative  from  sin,  what  God  has  done  in 
honour  of  His  own  day,  and  what  consolations  and  hopes  the 
promises  of  the  gospel  have  yielded  in  sickness  and  death."1 
"  To  the  deep  tone  of  his  piety,"  says  the  biographer  of  the 
late  Rev.  John  Jameson  of  Methven,  a  man  at  once  of  high 
genius,  the  most  saintly  character,  and  the  warmest,  tenderest 
heart,  "  may  be  ascribed  that  calm  delight,  combined  with  solemn 
concern  about  his  public  work,  which  were  so  visible  in  his  very 
countenance  on  the  Lord's  day.  On  that  day  he  rose  early,  seemed 
in  haste  to  realize  it  as  a  day  of  rest  from  the  labours  of  the  week  ; 
was  often  heard  to  say,  '  What  a  blessing  is  it,  after  all,  that  on 
this  day  God  does  not  require  us  to  waste  our  thoughts  on  earth- 
born  cares  ! '  He  seldom  spoke  with  his  family,  beyond  inquiring 
after  their  welfare,  till  his  public  duties  were  over ;  and  to  those 
in  whom  he  chose  to  confide,  he  accounted  for  this  by  saying,  that, 
when  his  family  were  all  in  health,  he  could  not  even  think  of 
them  till  he  had  done  what  he  could ;  so  heavily  did  the  work  of 
God  press  on  his  spirit.  But  after  the  public  services  of  the  day 
were  over,  he  delighted  in  having  his  family  all  about  him,  and 
would  often  speak  on  for  a  long  time,  with  great  ease  and  cheer 
fulness,  about  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  circumstances 
happened  to  suggest  to  him.  For  some  time  before  his  death, 
his  mind  on  these  occasions  turned  very  frequently  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection  ;  and  at  one  time,  with  the  view  perhaps  of 
apologizing  for  this,  he  spoke  nearly  as  follows  : — *  My  children, 
I  never  like  to  dwell  long  on  the  thought  of  death ;  that  is  a 

1  Memoir  prefixed  to  Dr.  Lawson's  Discourse*  on-  David,  p.  xxi. 


AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  451 

gloomy  subject ;  my  mind  is  always  for  bounding  off  to  the  bright 
morning  of  the  resurrection,  a  morning  so  full  of  life,  and  peace, 
and  joy.  Ah  !  that  is  the  morning  which  will  vanquish  death, 
and  swallow  up  in  perfect  victory  all  the  ill  it  has  ever  done  to  this 
poor  heart  of  mine,  by  tearing  asunder  the  finest  ties  which  bound 
it  to  the  earth,  and  sending  some  of  our  fairest  flowers  to  the  dull 
cold  grave.  Why  should  death  hold  so  many,  all  their  days,  in 
the  bondage  of  its  fear  1  What  is  it  to  die,  but  just  to  wink  and 
to  be  with  Christ  1 '  This  last  thought  seemed  to  dwell  in  his 
mind,  and  to  yield  him  much  enjoyment.  When,  not  long  before 
his  death,  a  Christian  friend  spoke  to  him  rather  despondingly  of 
the  long  and  weary  ages  that  the  body  must  lie  in  the  grave,  he 
replied,  in  his  usual  hearty  way,  '  It  is  just  to-morrow  morning ; 
you  never  think  the  night  long  when  your  sleep  is  sound.'"1 — 
Of  Mr.  John  M'Lelland,  a  "  Christian  farmer,"  it  is  said,  "  Indeed, 
from  the  account  sent  me  by  one  who  remains  on  the  farm,  and 
was  with  him  for  several  years,  and  from  what  I  knew  otherwise, 
it  does  appear  as  if  his  Sabbath  work  alone  was  more  than  he  was 
able  to  perform.  His  general  rule,  after  returning  from  the  place 
of  public  worship,  five  miles  distant,  was  to  visit  one  workman's 
family,  and  join  with  them  in  reading,  expounding  Scripture,  and 
prayers — to  gather  all  the  children  who  could  or  would  come  into 
his  own  house  for  instruction — and  afterwards  to  take  his  own 
children  by  themselves,  and  his  female  servants  by  themselves, 
and  close  up  the  employments  and  enjoyments  of  the  day  by  family 
prayers.  It  is  well  to  work  while  it  is  day,  for  the  night  cometh 
when  no  man  can  work,  and  to  him  it  was  drawing  nigh."  2 

We  have  yet  to  notice  the  public  respect  which  the  Sabbath 
has  received  in  the  United  Kingdom,  to  an  extent,  especially  in 
Scotland,  which  is  paralleled  elsewhere  only  in  the  United  States 
of  America.  Its  fortunes,  indeed,  have  from  various  causes  been 
considerably  chequered,  but  in  none  of  its  descents  has  it  ever 
reached  the  same  depression  as  in  other  countries,  and  it  has  spine- 
times  culminated  to  a  point  of  honour  somewhat  corresponding 
with  its  standard  and  its  final  triumph.  A  writer  on  the  subject 
thus  describes  some  of  its  palmy  days  in  England  :  "  As  we  do  not 

1  Remains,  with  Memoir,  by  the  Rev.  D.  Young,  D.D.,  Perth,  3d  edit,  pp.  19-21 
8  The  Christian  Farmer,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Towers,  Birkenhead,  p.  42. 


452  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

find  any  other  Reformed  Church  hath  either  so  clearly  maintained 
the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath  as  ours,  both  in  tne  Homily  of  the  Time 
and  Place  of  Prayer,  and  in  so  many  authorized  writers  for  more 
than  sixty  years  ;  or  so  solemnly  observed  it  by  command  of  laws, 
injunctions,  and  canons,  and  the  conscientiousness  of  governors  of 
families  and  private  Christians ;  so  we  find  a  special  ratification 
of  the  promised  blessing,  both  in  spiritual  and  temporal  respects."  x 
For  nearly  the  twenty  years  from  1640  to  1660,  the  Sabbath 
was  allowed  to  maintain  its  benignant  sway.  The  Revolution 
improved  its  condition  after  a  sad  reverse.  And  the  revival  of 
religion  through  the  labours  of  Romaine,  Whitfield,  and  Wesley, 
was  the  life  of  all  Christian  institutions.  "  A  number  of  the 
converts  of  Wesley  and  Whitfield,"  says  Jay  of  Bath,  "  were  yet 
living  when  I  began  to  appear  in  public,  and  some  of  them  I  knew 
intimately  ;  and  they  made  too  deep  an  impression  upon  me  to  be 

forgotten Their  attachment  to  the  means  of  grace  was 

intense  ;  nor  would  they  suffer  distance  or  weather,  or  slight  in 
dispositions  to  detain  them.  The  Sabbath  was  their  delight,  and 
they  numbered  the  days  till  its  arrival.  And  as  to  the  poorer  of 
them — 

'  Though  pinched  with  poverty  at  home, 

With  sharp  affliction  daily  fed  ; 
It  made  amends,  if  they  could  come 

To  God's  own  house  for  heavenly  bread.' 

Nor  were  these  services  only  pleasing  to  them  in  the  performance, 
they  were  remembered  and  talked  over  for  weeks  after.  For  the 
sermons  they  heard,  if  not  highly  polished,  left  effects  which  were  as 
goads,  and  as  nails  fastened  in  a  sure  place  by  the  hand  of  the 
Master  of  assemblies.  They  also  seemed  to  have  more  venera 
tion  for  the  Scriptures,  and  to  peruse  them  with  more  directness, 
simplicity,  and  docility, — for  the  Bible,  as  yet,  had  not  been  turned 
into  a  work  of  science  rather  than  of  faith,  and  of  everlasting 
criticism  rather  than  of  devotion,  nor  were  thousands  of  tutors 
and  multitudes  of  volumes  found  necessary  to  explain  a  simple 
book  designed  for  '  the  poor,'  and  the  l  common  people'  by  the 
only  wise  God  Himself."  2  Methodism  still  leavens  a  portion  of 

1  Sab.  Redivivum,  by  Cavrdrey  and  P.'ilmer  (1645).    Epist.  to  the  Reader,  pp.  4,  5. 
8  Autobiography  (second  «dition,  1855),  pp.  175-177. 


AFTER  THE  KEFORMATION.  453 

the  masses,  and  though  multitudes  of  working  men  have  in  our 
day  forsaken  the  house  of  God,  their  places  are  increasingly  sup 
plied  from  the  middle  and  higher  ranks.  If  in  Scotland  the  Sab 
bath  was  for  some  time  after  the  Reformation  not  so  well  observed 
as  afterwards,  this  was  owing  to  no  want  of  zealous  efforts  on  its 
behalf,  but  to  the  rooted  customs  of  Romanism ;  and  that  very 
period  was  the  seed-time,  when  the  Reformers  were  sowing  in 
tears  what  was  to  be  reaped  in  joy.  The  Covenanters  were  dis 
tinguished  by  their  ardent  love  to  the  Sabbath.  This  was  well 
known  by  their  persecutors,  some  of  whom,  when  in  pursuit  of  an 
intended  victim,  and  hearing  him  chant,  in  lively  strains,  some 
Scottish  air,  passed  on,  saying,  "  That,  at  least,  is  not  Alexander 
Brown  ;  he  would  not  sing  songs  on  the  Sabbath-day."1  Sir  Wal 
ter  Scott,  employing  the  cant  term  of  a  certain  class,  has  charged 
their  mode  of  keeping  the  day  "  as  Judaical."  The  charge  has  been 
repelled  by  two  writers,  than  whom  few  were  more  qualified  to  pro 
nounce  on  the  point.  "  We  do  not  know,"  remarks  Dr.  M'Crie, 
"  what  our  author  means,  and  we  are  not  sure  that  he  has  himself 
any  distinct  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  a  Judaical  observance  of  the 
Sabbath.  We  know  of  no  peculiar  strictness  on  this  head  exacted 
by  our  Presbyterian  forefathers,  above  what  is  practised  by  the 
sober  and  religious  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Scotland  to  this  day. 
And  whatever  he  may  be  pleased  to  think  of  it,  there  are  many 
of  as  enlightened  minds,  and  of  as  liberal  principles,  as  he  can 
pretend  to,  who  glory  in  this  national  distinction  ;  and  one  reason 
why  we  will  not  suffer  our  ancestors  to  be  misrepresented  by  him, 
or  by  any  writer  of  the  present  times,  is  the  gratitude  which  we 
feel  to  them,  for  having  transmitted  to  their  posterity  a  hereditary 
and  deep  veneration  for  the  Lord's  day."2  Principal  Lee,  when 
under  examination,  in  1832,  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons  on  the  Observance  of  the  Sabbath,  was  asked,  "  Can  you 
say,  from,  your  knowledge  of  history,  whether  the  description  given 
by  a  celebrated  novelist  of  the  period  of  the  Covenanters  is  his 
torically  correct,  and  whether  their  precise  manners  were  as 
strongly  marked  in  contrast  to  the  other  party  as  that  ingenious 
writer  would  have  us  to  suppose  3 "  His  answer  was,  "  Most  cer- 

1  Simpson's  Traditions  of  the  Covenanters^  1844,  Series  First,  p.  225. 
1  ilissxll&neous  Writings,  p.  276. 

20* 


454  THE  SABBATH  IN  HISTORY. 

tainly  that  description  is  not  historically  correct ;  there  never  was 
such  gloom  attending  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in  Scotland 
as  that  celebrated  writer  alleges.  The  Sabbath,  though  observed 
with  the  greatest  reverence,  was  a  day  rather  of  sober  and  cheer 
ful  piety,  than  of  any  painful  restraint.  It  may  be,  as  the  ques 
tion  has  been  asked,  not  improper  to  state,  that  the  greater  part 
of  the  description  applying  to  the  religion  and  morals  of  that  class 
of  persons  in  Scotland  who  are  known  by  the  name  of  Covenanters, 
must  have  been  supplied  almost  altogether  by  the  imagination  of  the 
writer."  The  Principal  then  specifies  some  instances  of  glaring 
ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  accuser  of  these  good  men,  and  con 
cludes  thus  :  "I  refer  to  these  particulars  merely  as  specimens  of 
the  inaccuracy  of  the  descriptions  which  have  probably  made  an 
impression  not  easily  effaced,  though  it  has  done  great  injustice 
to  the  characters  of  an  oppressed  and  persecuted  race,  who,  derided 
as  they  have  been  as  feeble-minded  fanatics,  did  more  than  any 
other  body  of  men  both  to  maintain  the  interests  of  religion,  and 
to  secure  for  their  posterity  the  enjoyment  of  civil  liberty."1  When 
we  consider  that  it  was  not  till  the  Revolution  that  the  Scottish 
people  of  that  time  had  "  rest  round  about,"  for  keeping  the 
Sabbath,  and  carrying  out  their  principles  and  wishes,  we  are  pre 
pared  to  admit  the  consistency  of  the  admitted  high  regard  for  the 
institution  on  the  part  of  the  Covenanters  .with  the  following  state 
ment  of  Dr.  Lee  :  "I  have  great  reason  to  think  that  the  Sab 
bath  was  observed  with  the  greatest  strictness  and  solemnity  in 
Scotland,  soon  after  the  period  of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  till 
about  the  year  1730,"  a  fact,  which  he  ascribes  "to  the  very 
great  vigilance,  faithfulness,  and  zeal  with  which  both  ministers 
and  elders  performed  their  duty  towards  those  who  were  placed 
under  their  charge,  and  more,  perhaps,  than  to  any  other  cause,  to 
the  universal  practice  of  Bible  education."2  About  the  time, 
however,  when  the  institution  began  to  wane  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  a  new  society  was  about  to  take  its  rise — the  Secession — 
in  which  the  Sabbath  has  for  more  than  a  century  been  peculiarly 

1  Minutes  of  Evidence,  pp.  272,  273.  It  is  right  to  state  that  Sir  Walter  Scott  made 
some,  if  an  inadequate,  reparation  of  his  error,  and  bore  a  testimony  to  the  truth,  in 
the  more  favourable  representation  which  he  gave  of  the  Covenanters  in  his  subsequent 
novels  and  in  his  Tales  of  a  Grandfather.  "  Minvtet,  p.  269. 


AFTER  THE  BEFURMATION.  4-5-5 

respected,  and  by  which  an  impulse  was  given  to  religion  in  the 
Mother  Church,  that  has  led,  through  the  zeal  of  those  who  have 
been  disrupted  from  her  communion,  and  the  improvement  of  those 
who  have  remained  in  it,  to  the  greatest  good  in  this  and  other  lands. 
What  conclusions  are  we  warranted  to  draw  from  the  whole 
history  in  the  preceding  pages  1  These  two  propositions,  at  least, 
eeem  to  follow  from  the  facts  :  that  a  taste  and  practice  opposed 
to  the  hatred  of  restraint,  and  to  the  love  of  selfish,  worldly  in 
dulgence,  which  are  naturally  so  strong  in  man,  must  have  had 
their  origin  and  support  from  a  Supernal  source  ;  and  that  the 
Sabbath,  which  the  human  heart  has  been  brought  by  a  Divine 
hand  to  relish,  must  itself,  like  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  have 
come  down  from  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  is  no  variable 
ness,  neither  shadow  of  turning. 


456  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED, 


THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED  AGAINST  OPPOSING 
ARGUMENTS,  THEORIES,  AND  SCHEMES. 


CHAPTER  I. 
ALLEGED  ANTI-SABBATISM  OF  THE  REFORMERS. 

THE  Reformers,  as  was  shown  in  a  former  chapter,  believed  the 
Sabbath  to  be  of  Divine  and  perpetual  obligation,  regarded  it  as 
of  supreme  importance,  and  enforced  as  well  as  exemplified  its 
sacred  observance.  It  is  not  denied,  however,  that  they  sometimes 
expressed  themselves  respecting  it  in  terms  which  have  given  occa 
sion  and  some  plausibleness  to  the  charge  of  hostility  to  the  in 
stitution.  This  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  that  their  unguarded 
language  must  have  often  been  recited,-  as  certainly  it  has  re 
peatedly  been  printed,  unaccompanied  by  their  better  utterances 
on  the  subject,  and  that  many,  in  such  a  case,  do  not  trouble 
themselves  to  inquire  into  the  circumstances,  so  as  to  under 
stand  the  proper  import  and  value  of  the  words  employed.  It 
is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Fairbairn,  who  has  fully  and  carefully  ex 
amined  the  whole  matter,  that  they  were  substantially  sound 
upon  the  question,  in  so  far  as  concerns  the  obligations  and  prac 
tice  of  Christians,  and  it  will  be  a  satisfaction  to  us,  if,  under 
the  following  heads,  we  can  advance  any  facts  or  considerations 
for  confirming  the  opinion. 

In  the  first  place,  let  it  be  understood  on  both  sides,  that 
whatever  were  the  views  of  the  Reformers,  their  name  does 
not  decide  the  controversy  between  the  friends  and  the  opponents 
of  a  Divine,  sacred,  and  permanent  Sabbath.  It  is  too  evident 
that  the  latter  have  employed  that  name  as  if  it  ought  to  silence 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  457 

every  plea  for  such  an  institution — and  we  will  not  affirm  that 
the  former  may  not  have  been  too  anxious  to  have  men  of  such 
repute  on  their  side.  Both  classes  in  such  a  case  forget  the 
example  which  the  Keformers  have  set  them,  and,  what  is  of 
much  more  consequence,  the  law  of  Christ,  which  says,  "  Call  no 
man  master."  Men  may  err,  but  not  the  Word  of  God. 

Second,  If  we  duly  weighed  the  circumstances  of  the  Re 
formers,  we  should  be  disposed  to  moderate  our  estimate  of  the 
value  of  their  judgment  in  this  matter.  They  had,  for  example, 
but  limited  means  for  examining  and  discussing  the  subject.  The 
Great  Apostasy  has  ever  been  a  perversion,  not  an  open  re 
nunciation  of  Christianity — "  a  noble  vine,"  not  rooted  up,  but 
"turned  into  the  degenerate  plant  of  a  strange  vine."  Rome, 
professing  to  retain,  has  yet  corrupted  every  doctrine,  institution, 
and  law  of  Jesus  Christ — recognising,  for  example,  the  Mediator 
between  God  and  men,  but  associating  with  Him  many  other 
intercessors ;  avowing  adherence  to  the  Scripture,  but  to  the 
Scripture  as  supplemented  and  made  void  by  the  writings  and 
traditions  of  men ;  and,  in  short,  without  discarding  the  Lord's 
day,  adding  a  number  of  encumbering  holidays,  giving  them  in 
many  instances  an  honour  equal  and  even  superior  to  God's  own 
day,  and  claiming  for  "  the  Vicar  of  Christ "  lordship  "  even  of 
the  Sabbath."  It  was  thus  with  arrogant  claims,  and  gross 
abuses,  affecting  the  Lord's  day,  not  with  the  open  denial  of  its 
authority,  or  rejection  of  its  sacred  character,  that  the  Reformers 
had  to  grapple.  The  latter  subjects  formed  no  part  of  their 
controversy  with  Rome,  and,  indeed,  had  never  come  under  dis 
cussion  to  any  extent  in  the  Church.  Their  circumstances  did 
not  call  them  particularly  and  critically  to  consider  the  general 
question,  and,  judging  from  the  small  space  allowed  to  the 
weekly  holy  day  in  their  works,  as  well  as  from  their  occasional 
manner  of  writing  respecting  it,  the  institution  appears  to  have 
received  less  than  most  other  points  in  theology  of  their  careful 
attention.  They  knew  it  in  their  Christian  love  and  practice 
more  than  as  a  doctrine.  The  heats,  besides,  and  the  turmoils  of 
a  great  revolution,  were  not  the  most  favourable  state  in  which 
calmly  to  weigh  and  adjust  a  system  of  truth.  And  when  long- 
continued,  deep-seated,  and  wide-spread  evils  had  to  be  remedied, 


458  'THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

much  of  the  work  of  reformation  was  necessarily  left  by  the 
originators  to  those  who  should  come  after  them.  Such  con 
siderations  might  guard  us  against  the  mistake  of  supposing  that 
Luther  and  Calvin  had  clearer  views  of  the  Sabbatic  institution 
than  its  friends  in  later'  times,  and  of  attaching  the  whole  weight 
of  honour  acquired  by  them  in  other  fields  of  labour  and  prowess, 
to  their  sayings  and  doings  on  an  arena  where  they  had  not  put 
forth  their  might.  Another  circumstance  was,  the  state  of  the 
institution  in  the  Church  which  they  sought  to  reform.  It  was 
the  confession  of  Koman  Catholic  writers  themselves,  that  the 
Church  had,  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  reached  a 
measure  of  corruption  which  rendered  her  incapable  of  bearing 
either  her  disorders  or  the  remedies.  One  of  her  intolerable 
disorders  was  that  of  holidays,  which,  begun  early,  was  now  nearly 
at  its  worst.  Pious,  but  misguided  zeal,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
introduced  stated  feasts  and  fasts.  In  Constantino's  tampering 
with  the  Fourth  Commandment,  by  permitting  agricultural  labour 
on  the  Lord's  day,  and  ordering  the  observance  of  certain  holidays, 
we  discover  the  germ  of  bolder  assumptions  afterwards  made  by 
the  Papacy  when  it  sought  to  change  the  times  and  laws  of  the 
Most  High.  The  greater  festivals  were  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Sabbath-days.  Then,  as  by  Bernard,  all  other  holy  days  were 
held,  equally  with  the  only  true  holy  day,  to  be  grounded  upon 
the  Divine  law.  The  next  step,  of  which  we  have  an  instance 
in  an  edict  of  Edward  iv.  of  England,  was  to  sink  in  the  general 
class  of  such  days  the  Lord's  day.  In  the  same  century  (the 
fifteenth)  the  seasons  of  rest  from  labour  had  so  multiplied,  and 
been  the  occasions  of  so  much  profligacy  and  riot,  as  to  excite  the 
alarm  and  remonstrances  of  thoughtful  men,  only,  however,  to  be 
disregarded  by  the  Popes,  who  "  did  not  only  keep  the  holidays, 
which  they  found  established,  in  the  state  in  which  they  found 
them,  but  added  others  daily  as  they  saw  occasion."1  "  The  third 
part  of  the  year,"  in  consequence,  "passed  away  in  idle  festivals."2 
The  Sabbath,  than  which,  as  in  a  former  part  of  this  volume  has 
been  shown,  nothing  tends  more  to  the  moral  and  monetary  good 
of  society,  was  prostituted  into  a  means  of  general  demoralization 

i  Heylyn's  Hist,  of  the  Sab.,  Part  ii.  p,  1C& 
s  Beza,  On  Song  of  Solomon,  Ser.  8  on  ch.  iJi, 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  459 

and  poverty.  That  day,  designed  and  fitted  to  be  a  season  of  wor 
ship  and  religious  instruction,  was,  from  its  uncongenial  connexion 
with  so  many  unhallowed  festivals,  compelled  to  serve  in  the 
cause  of  profaneness,  infidelity,  and  vice.  It  was  found  easier 
and  more  "pleasant,  by  priests  and  people,  to  spend  a  multitude  of 
consecrated  days  in  attending  on  processions  and  the  mass,  than 
in  the  labours  of  teaching  and  learning  Divine  knowledge.  "What 
was  worse,  holidays  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  whole  of  man's 
salvation  and  sanctity.  They  were  considered  as  holy  in  them 
selves,  and  as  rendering  sacred  what  was  done  on  them.  The 
doctrine  of  grace,  according  to  the  Augsburg  Confession,  "  is 
almost  wholly  smothered  by  traditions,  which  have  bred  an 
opinion,  that,  by  making  difference  in  meats,  and  such  like  ser 
vices,  a  man  must  merit  remission  of  sins  and  justification.  In 
their  doctrine  of  repentance  there  was  no  mention  of  faith,  only 
these  satisfactory  works  were  spoken  of;  repentance  seemed  to 
stand  wholly  in  these.  Secondly,  these  traditions  obscured  the 
commandments  of  God  that  they  could  not  be  known,  because 
that  traditions  were  preferred  far  above  the  commandments 
of  God.  All  Christianity  was  thought  to  be  an  observation 
of  certain  holy  days,  rites,  fasts,  and  attire."1  Ochin  says,  "  If 
thou  wouldest  ask  at  what  time  God  ought  to  be  loved,  they 
[the  Papists]  will  answer,  on  the  Sabbath  and  festival  days." 
"  For  observing  the  first  and  chief est  commandment  of  the  law, 
it  is  sufficient  that,  at  the  least  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  upon  the 
Sabbath-day,  we  have  in  us  some  act  of  love  towards  God,  with 
exalting  Him  above  all  things  ;  and  that  this,  through  our  most 
[sic]  and  mighty  free  will,  is  always  in  our  power."2  Men's 
minds  were  thus  turned  away  from  the  means  of  salvation,  and 
from  the  study  and  practice  of  true  religion,  into  the  endless  and 
perplexing  labyrinth  of  a  vast  system  of  casuistry  relating  to 
meats,  drinks,  days,  and  "  the  putting  on  of  apparel ;"  and  "  many 
fell  into  despair,  some  murdering  themselves  because  they  could 
not  keep  the  traditions."3  The  design  of  the  Papacy  in  the 
whole  matter  was  to  promote  its  own  ascendency,  and  to  fill  its 

1  Hall's  Harmony.of  Confessions,  p.  397. 

8  Sermons,  quoted  in  James's  Sermons  on  the  Sacraments,  pp.  218,  219. 

»  Hall's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  8&8. 


460  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

coffers,  "  the  monks  daily  heaping  up  ceremonies,  both  with  new 
superstitions,  and  also  with  new  ways  to  bring  in  money."  And 
to  bind  down  and  perpetuate  thess  burdens  on  the  minds  and 
consciences  of  men,  it  was  taught  and  believed,  that  "  Christ  gave 
the  charge  of  devising  new  ceremonies,  which  should  be  necessary 
to  salvation,  to  the  apostles  and  bishops."1  From  this  the  tran 
sition  was  easy  to  the  daring,  blasphemous  dogma,  that  the 
bishops,  by  virtue  of  this  authority,  had  "  dispensed  with  a  precept 
of  the  Moral  Law,  and  changed  the  Sabbath  into  the  Lord's  day."  2 
Such,  while  the  institution  was  professedly  maintained  and  hon 
oured,  were  the  evils  by  which  its  rights  were  invaded,  and  its 
influence  was  impaired.  Trained  under  such  a  system,  how  could 
it  be  supposed  that  the  Keformers  should  retain  no  taint  of  its 
errors  ?  and  yet,  exasperated  at  the  enormities  which  they  had 
discovered,  how  could  they  be  expected  to  avoid  every  extreme  in 
the  opposite  direction  1  Such  views  would  imply  them  to  be 
more  than  human. 

Third,  The  views  of  the  Reformers  on  the  subject  of  the  Sab 
bath  have  not  been  fairly  presented.  It  is  possible  that  on  both 
sides  of  the  controversy  there  may  be  writers  who,  in  searching 
for  passages  that  favour  their  own  views  and  wishes,  unintention 
ally  omit  those  of  a  different  description.  Such  a  method  of 
leading  evidence,  if  it  cannot  be  pronounced  in  their  case  to  be 
wrong  in  morals,  and  indefensible  in  logic,  unless  we  are  sure  that 
it  was  knowingly  resorted  to,  betrays  at  least  a  carelessness  which 
proves  their  unfitness  for  their  task.  We  are  willing  to  place  in 
this  category  a  number  of  works  of  recent  date,  in  which  certain 
strong  and  peculiar  statements  of  the  Reformers  appear,  while 
much  clearer  and  more  decisive  declarations,  containing  nearly  all 
the  received  doctrines  on  the  Sabbath,  are  excluded.  It  is  especi 
ally  painful  to  find  Dr.  Hengstenberg  chargeable  with  this  con 
duct,  the  more  so  that  the  influence  of  his  name  imparts  greater 
currency  and  power  to  the  injury  and  wrong. 

Fourth,  The  words  of  the  Reformers  have  been  in  some  instances 
misunderstood.  Let  us  give  an  example  from  a  passage  in  the 
Institutions  of  Calvin,  who  says,  "  Nor  do  I  so  value  the  septen 
ary  number  as  to  bind  the  Church  to  its  servitude,  nor  shall  I 

1  Hall's  Harmony  of  Confessions,  p.  401.  3  jfrfcj. 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  461 

condemn  the  churches  which  observe  other  days  for  their  meet 
ings,  provided  they  avoid  superstition,  which  they  will  do  if  they 
only  observe  the  day  from  regard  to  discipline  and  good  order. 
.  .  .  Thus  vanish  the  trifles  of  false  teachers  who  have  in  former 
days  imbued  the  people  with  Judaical  notions,  alleging  that  only 
what  was  ceremonial  in  this  commandment  was  abrogated,  that 
is,  the  appointment  of  the  seventh  day,  and  that  what  was  moral, 
or  the  observance  of  one  day  in  seven,  remained.  But  that  is 
nothing  else  than  to  change  the  day  in  reproach  of  the  Jews,  and 
yet  to  retain  the  same  holiness  of  a  day,  forasmuch  as  there  con 
tinues  among  us  the  same  mystery  in  the  meaning  of  days  that 
prevailed  among  the  Jews.  And  verily  we  see  what  they  have 
made  by  such  doctrine  who  adhere  to  their  constitutions,  and  thrice 
surpass  the  Jews  in  the  gross,  carnal  superstition  of  Sabbatism, 
so  that  the  rebukes  of  Isaiah  (Isa.  i.  1 3  ;  Iviii.  1 3)  are  no  less 
applicable  to  the  men  of  our  day  than  to  those  whom  he  censured 
in  his  own  time."1  That  when  he  said  he  would  not  restrict  the 
Church  to  the  number  seven,  or  condemn  the  churches  which  ob 
served  other  days  for  their  meetings,  he  meant  that  he  would  not 
diminish  but  increase  the  opportunities  of  worship,  and  would  add 
to,  not  change,  the  day  of  the  hitherto  observed  Sabbath,  is  manifest 
from  his  very  words,  not  to  say  from  his  practice,  and  from  all 
that  he  elsewhere  advances  respecting  a  perpetual  seventh  day  of 
rest,  the  duties  divinely  assigned  to  it,  and  its  vast  importance. 
He  will  admit  of  superadded  days  of  worship,  but  not  supersti 
tious  holidays.  In  the  second  part  of  the  quotation,  he  has  been 
erroneously  supposed  to  deny  the  morality  of  a  septenary  rest. 
This  supposition  would  make  him  contradict  what  he  has  re 
peatedly  affirmed  of  the  Divine  example  of  resting  at  the  Creation 
as  a  perpetual  rule,  and  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  as  an  ever 
lasting  law  of  righteousness  to  mankind.  In  the  words  referred 
to,  however,  he  assails  not  a  seventh  day,  but  a  fancied  change  of 
one  seventh  day  of  Jewish  observance  into  another  seventh  day  of 
Jewish  observance  ;  a  change  made  under  colour,  that  by  keeping 
the  proportion  of  time  they  honoured  the  morality  of  the  institu 
tion,  while,  in  fact,,  they  carried  along  with  them  the  ceremonial 
character  of  the  old  Sabbath.  To  substitute  the  first  for  the 

1  On  Fourth  Commandment. 


462  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

seventh  day  in  such  circumstances  was  merely  to  put  a  slight  on 
the  Jewish  day,  not  to  turn  Jewish  into  Christian  practice.  He 
concludes  his  remarks  thus  :  "  But  the  general  doctrine  is  prin 
cipally  to  be  maintained,  lest  religion  should  fall  or  languish,  that 
sacred  assemblies  are  to  be  diligently  observed,  and  attention 
given  to  the  external  aids  which  foster  the  worship  of  God."  The 
amount  of  the  whole  is,  that  the  seventh  proportion  of  time  is  not 
to  be  regarded  as  something  in  itself  holy,  or  to  be  observed  with 
superstitious  feelings  and  forms,  but  to  be  employed  in  spiritual 
exercises,  and  for  furthering  piety  as  the  business  of  the  whole 
life. 

Our  remark  applies  also  to  a  few  expressions  which,  common  to 
the  Reformers  in  general,  sound  strangely  to  ears  trained  to  the 
distinct  sounds  emitted  on  our  subject  by  the  Puritans  of  England 
and  the  Eeformers  and  Covenanters  of  Scotland.  "  It  was  not 
without  a  reason  that  the  ancients  substituted  what  we  call  the 
Lord's  day  for  the  Sabbath."  (Calvin  in  Institutions.)  "  The 
Church  did  appoint  the  Lord's  day,  which  day  for  this  cause  also 
seemed  to  have  better  liked  the  Church,  that  in  it  men  might 
have  an  example  of  Christian  liberty,  and  might  know  that  the 
observance  neither  of  the  Sabbath,  nor  of  any  other  day,  was  of 
necessity."  (Augsburg  Confession.)  "  For  we  believe  neither 
that  one  day  is  holier  than  another,  nor  that  rest  by  itself  is 
acceptable  to  God,  but  yet  we  keep  the  Lord's  day,  not  the 
Sabbath,  by  a  voluntary  observance."  (Helvetic  Confession.) 
"  They  did  not  desist  from  manual  labour  on  the  ground  of  its 
interfering  with  sacred  study  and  meditation,  but  from  a  sort  of 
religious  obligation,  because  they  dreamed  that  by  ceasing  from 
work  they  revived  mysteries  which  were  at  one  time  authorized." 
(Calvin,  Institutions.)  It  is  manifest,  not  only  from  the  doctrines 
already  shown  to  have  been  held  by  the  Reformers,  as  well  as 
from  their  whole  conduct,  but  also  from  their  plain  statements 
already  adduced,  that  the  liberty  claimed  by  them  as  to  times  was 
a  freedom  not  from  the  keeping  of  a  day  of  holy  rest,  but  from 
the  yoke  of  ancient  ceremonies,  firm  that  yoke  particularly,  as 
wreathed  round  the  necks  of  Christians  by  Rome,  and  held  ne 
cessary  to  be  worn  by  them  if  they  would  be  saved  ;  and  that 
when  they  say,  "  The  Church  chose  a  day,"  or  "such  a  thing 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  463 

liked  the  Church  ;"  they  are  not  to  be  understood  as  denying  the 
appointment  of  the  Lord's  day  to  have  been  made  by  Christ. 
Thus,  in  words  already  quoted,  the  Augsburg  Confession  says, 
"  The  general  rule  abideth  still  in  the  moral  law,  that  at  certain 
times  we  should  come  together  to  these  godly  exercises  ;  but  the 
special  day,  which  was  but  a  ceremony,  was  free."  But  did  Chris 
tians  determine  what  clay  they  were  to  sanctify  ?  Let  the  Con 
fession  declare  that  Luther  and  his  friends  had  no  such  idea,  for 
it  adds  :  ll  Whereupon  the  apostles  retained  not  the  seventh  day, 
but  did  rather  take  the  first  day  of  the  week  for  that  use,  that  by 
it  they  might  admonish  the  godly  both  of  their  liberty  and  of 
Christ's  resurrection."  While  the  Helvetic  Confession  states  : 
"  We  keep  the  Lord's  day,  not  the  Sabbath,  by  a  voluntary  ob 
servance,"  and  "  every  Church  chooses  for  itself  a  certain  time 
for  public  prayer  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,"  it  declares, 
"  that  the  Lord's  day  was  devoted  to  religious  meetings  and  sacred 
leisure,  even  as  early  as  the  times  of  the  apostles,  and  that  it  is 
not  left  free  to  every  one  capriciously  to  overturn  this  arrangement 
of  the  Church." 

John  Knox  himself — whose  love  and  reverence  for  the  Lord's 
day  are  written  in  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  ;  in  the  Acts  of  the 
early  Assemblies  of  his  Church,  which  repudiated  holy  days,  and 
testified  against  the  desecration  of  the  holy  day ;  and  in  three  cen 
turies'  history  of  his  country — has  been  represented  as  conceiving 
"  the  Sabbath  to  have  been  an  exclusively  Jewish  institution,  and 
never  meant  for  this  advanced  dispensation ; "  and  this  on  the 
grounds,  that  there  is  no  express  mention  of  the  sanctification 
of  the  Sabbath  in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  which  he  with 
others  drew  up  [the  substance,  however,  is  there],  and  that 
the  Duke  of  Chatellerault  and  the  English  Ambassador  supped 
with  him  on  a  Sunday  evening.  Our  preamble  to  this  charge, 
and  our  statement  of  the  charge  itself,  are  its  refutation,  and 
we  draw  the  conclusion  to  which  every  considerate  and  candid 
mind  will  come,  when  we  add,  It  is  a  pure  fancy.  It  is 
true  indeed,  as  alleged,  that  the  Duke  of  Chatellerault  supped 
with  the  Reformer,  but  we  leave  it  to  our  readers  to  judge 
from  the  following  words  whether  there  was  anything  in  the 
matter  inconsistent  with  the  most  sacred  respect  for  the  institu 


464  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

tion  :  "  Upon  Sondaye  at  night,  the  Duke  supped  with  Mr.  Knox, 
wher  the  Duke  desired  that  I  shold  be.  Thre  speciall  pointes  he 
hathe  promised  to  perform  to  Mr.  Knox  before  me  :  the  one  is 
never  to  goe  for  any  respecte  from  that  he  hath  promised  to  be,  a 
professor  of  Christ's  worde,  and  setter  forthe  of  the  same  to  his 
power  :  the  nexte,  alwayes  to  shewe  hymself  an  obedyent  subjecte 
to  his  sovereigne,  as  far  as  in  duetie  and  in  conscience  he  is 
bounde  :  the  thyrde,  never  to  alter  from  that  promes  he  hathe 
made  for  the  mayntenance  of  peace  and  amytie  betwene  both  the 
realmes.  I  had  of  hym  besides  thys,  manie  good  words  myselfe 
touchinge  thys  latter  poynte." 1 

Again,  the  Reformers,  in  their  zeal  against  superstition,  made 
use  of  strong  language  which  ought  not  to  be  interpreted  literally, 
or  viewed  apart  from  the  other  sayings,  and  from  the  practice  of 
its  authors.  Such  is  the  character  of  the  expressions  of  Zuing- 
lius,  who  said  that  man  was  lord  of  the  Sabbath  ;  of  Tyndale ; 
and  of  his  convert,  Frith  (pp.  35,  36  of  this  volume).  It  is 
remarked  of  Tyndale  and  Frith,  "  These  excellent  men  (cut 
off  before  the  Reformation  had  made  much  progress  in  England, 
Frith  in  1533,  Tyndale  three  years  afterwards),  wrote  at  the  time 
when  the  evil  of  the  number  of  the  Romish  holidays,  and  the 
superstitious  observance  of  them  by  the  people,  was  so  strongly 
felt,  as  to  call  for  a  check  even  from  those  who  had  not  then  em 
braced  the  opinions  of  the  Reformers.  Yet  we  should  notice  that 
they  both  speak  of  Sunday,  as  made  the  day  of  public  religious 
instruction,  instead  of  the  ancient  Sabbath  ;  and  though  Tyndale 
somewhat  extravagantly  considers  the  change  of  any  other  day  for 
it  still  in  the  power  of  the  Church,  his  friend  Frith  represents 
the  change  as  having  been  made  by  the  apostles ;  for  St.  Paul 
certainly  was  among  those  forefathers  in  the  beginning  who  abro 
gated  the  Jewish  Sabbath."2  We  may  add,  that  none  of  these 
men  ever  attempted  to  carry  his  vehement  words  into  effect,  and 
that  Tyndale,  as  noted  page  36,  was  evidently  a  devout  observer 
of  the  Lord's  day.  But  Luther  was  still  more  given  to  such 
paroxysms  of  zeal.  "The  law  of  Moses,"  Dr.  Hengstenberg  re- 

1  Letter  from  Kandolph  (English  Ambassador;  to  Cecil,  in  Wright's  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  her  Times,  vol.  i  pp.  .114,  115. 
3  James's  Four  Sermons,  pp.  221,  222. 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  465 

presents  him  as  saying,  "  belongs  to  the  Jews,  and  is  no  longer 
binding  upon  us.  The  words  of  Scripture  prove  clearly  to  us  that 
the  ten  commandments  do  not  affect  us  ;  for  God  has  not  brought 
us  out  of  Egypt,  but  only  the  Jews.  We  are  willing  to  take 
Moses  as  a  teacher,  but  not  as  our  Lawgiver,  except  when  he 
agrees  with  the  New  Testament,  and  with  the  law  of  nature."1 
Hotter  still  he  becomes,  according  to  Coleridge,  who  treats  us,  in 
Table  Talk,  to  the  following  explosion  :  "  Keep  it  holy,"  are 
the  words  of  the  Reformer,  "  for  its  use'  sake,  both  to  body  and 
soul  !  But  if  anywhere  the  day  is  made  holy  for  the  mere  day's 
sake,  if  anywhere  any  one  sets  up  its  observance  upon  a  Jewish 
foundation,  then  I  order  you  to  work  on  it,  to  ride  on  it,  to  dance 
on  it,  to  feast  on  it,  to  do  anything  that  shall  reprove  this  en 
croachment  on  the  Christian  spirit  and  liberty."  "2  "As  for  the 
Sabbath  or  Lord's  day,"  he  remarks,  "  there  is  no  necessity  for 
keeping  it  ;  but  if  we  do  so,  it  ought  to  be  not  on  account  of  Moses' 
commandment,  but  because  nature  teaches  us  from  time  to  time  to 
take  a  day  of  rest,  in  order  that  men  and  animals  may  recruit 
their  strength,  and  that  we  may  attend  the  preaching  of  God's 
word."3  On  other  occasions,  however,  he  declares  that  "it  is 
good  and  necessary  that  men  should  keep  a  particular  day  ;"  speaks 
of  what  "  God  requires  of  us  in  this  [the  fourth]  commandment," 
and  holds  that,  "  because  the  Lord's  day  has  been  appointed  from 
the  earliest  times,  we  ought  to  keep  to  this  arrangement."  It  so 
far  explains  the  two  modes  of  expression  to  suppose,  that  the 
Reformer  objects  only  to  a  superstitious  regard  for  a  day  ;  but 
the  full  verification  of  the  saying,  "  Luther  is  to  be  interpreted 
by  Luther,"  must,  in  the  present  instance,  be  sought  for  by  com 
paring  Luther  less  cool  and  informed,  with  Luther  calm  and  in 
structed.  He  himself  would  not  thank  us  for  attempting  to  make 
him  at  one  with  himself,  for  he  says,  "If  at  the  outset  I 
inveighed  against  the  law,  both  from  the  pulpit  and  in  my  writ 
ings,  the  reason  was,  that  the  Christian  Church  at  the  time  was 
overladen  with  superstitions,  under  which  Christ  was  altogether 
buried  and  hidden,  and  that  I  yearned  to  save  and  liberate  pious 
and  God-fearing  souls  from  this  tyranny  over  the  conscience.  But 


i  Lord's  Day,  p.  61.  2  Tabie  T^  voit  ft  pp.  315)  316> 

*  Miclielet's  Life  of  Luther,  Book  iv.  chap.  ii. 


466  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

I  have  never  rejected  the  law."  "  He  who  pulls  down  the  law, 
pulls  down  at  the  same  time  the  whole  framework  of  human 
polity  and  society.  If  the  law  be  thrust  out  of  the  Church,  there 
will  no  longer  be  anything  recognised  as  a  sin  in  the  world,  since 
the  gospel  defines  and  punishes  sin  only  by  recurring  to  the  law."1 
And  again,  "  Let  us  leave  Moses  to  his  laws,  excepting  only  the 
Moralia,  which  God  hath  planted  in  nature,  as  <  the  Ten  Command 
ments.'"2  When,  accordingly,  John  Agricola  Islebius,  the  founder 
of  the  Antinomian  party  (1538),  represented  the  Reformer  as 
holding  the  doctrine,  that  the  law  was  abrogated,  the  latter,  in  an 
epistolary  exposure  of  the  opinions  of  the  party,  said,  "  And  truly 
I  wonder  exceedingly  how  it  came  to  be  imputed  to  me,  that  I 
should  reject  the  law  or  ten  commandments,  there  being  so  many 
of  my  own  expositions  (and  those  of  several  sorts)  upon  the  com 
mandments,  which  also  are  daily  expounded  and  used  in  our 
churches,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Confession,  and  Apology,  and  other 
books  of  ours.  Add  hereunto  the  custom  we  have  to  sing  the 
commandments  in  two  different  tunes,  besides  the  painting,  print 
ing,  carving,  and  rehearsing  them  by  children,  both  morning,  noon, 
and  evening  ;  so  that  I  know  no  other  way  than  what  we  have 
used,  but  that  we  do  not,  alas  !  as  we  ought,  really  express  them 
in  our  lives  and  conversation."3  As  an  evidence  how  sensible 
he  was  that  his  opinions  were  far  from  being  infallible,  we  find 
that  when  a  friend  informed  him  of  some  persons  in  Belgium, 
who  were  offended  at  certain  parts  of  his  writings,  his  reply 
was,  "  When  you  meet  with  anything  of  no  worth,  delete  it, 
delete  it." 

Further,  it  is  due  to  the  Reformers  to  give  prominence  and 
weight  to  the  latest  expression  of  their  sentiments.  We  have  not 
seen  any  express  indication  on  the  part  of  Luther  of  "  compunctious 
visitings  "  for  Ms  language  respecting  the  Sabbath,  yet  we  cannot 
but  accord  with  a  Lutheran  writer  in  the  conviction,  that  his  com 
mentary  on  Genesis,  written  not  long  before  his  death,  and  ex 
pressing  the  formerly  quoted,  clear,  decided  views  of  the  primitive 
appointment  of  the  institution,  with  his  hymns  on  the  Decalogue, 
which  he  wished  to  be  sung  in  the  Church  while  he  lived  and 

1  For  this  and  preceding  quotation,  see  Michelet  as  above,  chap  iv. 

*  Luther's  Table  Talk,  No.  271.  »  Rutherford's  Spiritual  Antichrist,  p.  TL 


CHARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  467 

after  he  was  gone,  represented  his  latest  Sabbatic  opinions.1     One 
of  these  hymns,  composed  in  1525,  runs  : — 

"  Honour  my  name  in  word  and  deed, 
And  call  on  me.  in  time  of  need : 
Keep  holy  too  the  Sabbath-day, 
That  work  in  thee  I  also  may." 

And  the  other  of  the  previous  year,  has  the  words  :— 

"  Hallow  the  day  which  God  hath  blest, 
That  thou  and  all  thy  house  may  -rest : 
Keep  hand  and  heart  from  labour  free, 
That  God  may  have  his  work  in  thee."2 

Lastly,  it  may  even  be  allowed  that  the  Reformers  erred  to 
some  extent  in  regard  to  the  weekly  holy  day,  while  it  is  held 
that  they  did  not  thereby  forfeit  their  claim  to  be  ranked  among 
the  friends  of  the  institution,  inasmuch  as  the  truth  decidedly 
outweighs  the  error.  Calvin,  Luther,  and,  indeed,  all  the  prin 
cipal  men  of  the  Reformation  except  Knox,  were  of  the  opinion 
of  Augustine  and  others  of  the  Fathers,  that  the  fourth  was  dis 
tinguished  from  the  rest  of  the  commandments  by  being  partly  of 
a  ceremonial  character.  They  seemed  not  to  know  how  the  trans 
ference  of  the  sacred  rest  from  the  last  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week  could  be  reconciled  to  the  doctrine  of  a  moral,  unchangeable 
precept,  and  therefore  adopted  the  theory  of  a  double  aspect  of  the 
commandment,  one  part  being  ceremonial  which  has  passed  away, 
the  other  being  moral  and  enduring.  The  distinction  is  as  unne 
cessary  as  it  is  untenable.  The  Second  Commandment  might  as 
well  be  supposed  to  have  a  twofold  character,  inasmuch  as  the 
means  of  worship,  which  it  rules,  have  been  changed  from  Jewish 
to  Christian  ordinances.  The  alteration  in  both  cases  was  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  law,  provided  for  by  positive  appointment 
and  special  revelation,  not  in  the  law  itself.  The  Sabbath  had  a 
ceremonial  or  typical  character  under  the  Levitical  economy,  but 
not  so  its  royal  precept.  This  was  the  distinction  that  ought  to 
have  been  made  by  the  Fathers  and  Reformers,  but  their  adopt 
ing  another,  though  •  an  error,  did  not  originate  in  a  low  estimate 

1  Brunsman,  Sab.  Quies,  par,  215,  219. 

«  Geistliche  Leider,  Lend.  (1845),  pp.  53,  56,  and  Hassle's  Translation,  etc.,  pp  53,  55t 


468  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

Df  the  day  of  rest,  which  they  regarded,  the  typical  aspect  having 
disappeared,  as  still  the  charge  of  a  moral  statute.  The  error, 
however,  had  the  effect  of  perplexing  their  views  on  the  subject, 
and  leading  to  the  use  of  certain  expressions,  which  have  exposed 
their  respect  for  the  institution  to  suspicion,  and  the  cause  itself 
to  practical  injury.  Another  matter  in  which  all  the  Keforrners, 
with  the  exception  again  of  Knox,  appear  to  us  to  have  more  or 
less  fallen  into  error,  was  that  of  holidays.  We  have  seen  that 
some  would  have  removed  such  days  entirely,  which  in  fact  was 
done  in  Geneva,  and  at  Strasburg,  and  that  the  number  of  them  in 
several  instances  was  reduced.  But  none  of  the  Eeformers  was 
so  decided  in  opinion  and  practice  on  the  subject  as  Knox.  Even 
Calvin  treated  the  question  as  one  of  comparative  unimportance. 
Whatever  was  the  cause,  Luther's  early  desire  for  the  abolition  of 
holidays  was  not  fulfilled.  The  prejudice  in  favour  of  some  of 
them  was  strong,  as  we  learn  from  the  feelings  of  the  Bernese, 
of  the  Belgian  magistrates,  and  of  a  few  in  Scotland,  who  con 
tinued  to  observe  certain  feast-days  for  some  time  after  the  Re 
formation.  These  observances  were  restored  in  Geneva,  and  have 
been  permanently  disregarded  among  Protestants  only  by  the 
Psiritans  of  England,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland,  with  their 
descendants  in  America  and  other  countries,  and  by  the  mission 
ary  churches  which  they  have  planted  in  various  lands.  But  the 
failure  of  the  good  men  of  the  Reformation  to  carry  into  effect 
Luther's  desire  for  the  disbanding  of  the  holidays,  while  to  be 
regretted,  does  not  appear  a  sufficient  ground  for  questioning  their 
respect  for  the  Lord's  day,  which,  though  in  some  instances  it  was 
classed  by  them  as  if  it  were  only  the  chief  in  a  series  of  such 
days,  they  repeatedly  declared  to  be  an  express  appointment  of 
Heaven,  and  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of  the  church,  withhold 
ing,  at  the  same  time,  that  honour  from  other  days  of  rest  and 
worship. 

Having  endeavoured  to  present  the  Sabbatic  opinions  of  the 
Reformers  in  the  light  of  truth  and  facts,  we  venture  to  claim  on 
their  behalf  from  our  readers  a  verdict  of  "not  guilty"  of  the 
offence  of  hostility  or  even  indifference  to  the  institution.  They 
erred,  it  is  allowed,  in  some  of  their  expressions  and  proceedings. 
They  unhappily  failed  to  distinguish  between  the  Sabbath  as  it 


CBARGE  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  469 

stood  in  the  Decalogue,  and  the  Sabbath  as  connected  with  the 
judicial  and  ceremonial  appendages  of  Judaism,  and  to  eradicate 
what  some  of  themselves  called  "  the  useless  and  hurtful  practice 
of  holiday  keeping."  Theirs,  however,  were  the  mistakes  of  ar 
dent  friends  of  piety  and  good  morals,  who  in  eagerly  opposing 
enormities  fell  into  some  errors,  and  in  checking  the  gross  abuse  of 
the  external  and  preceptive,  as  well  as  in  aiming  at  a  high  measure 
of  the  spiritual  and  the  voluntary  in  religion,  did  not  sufficiently 
adjust  the  claims  of  the  outward  and  the  inward,  of  liberty  and 
law.  Knox  avoided  their  mistakes.  In  1547,  he  adopted,  as 
the  result  of  independent  inquiry,  the  great  principles,  which 
guided  his  future  career,  and  by  which  he  was  honoured  to  effect 
the  most  thorough  of  the  salutary  revolutions  accomplished  at 
the  Reformation.  In  that  year  he  taught  at  St.  Andrews  the 
doctrine  that  everything  in  religion  ought  to  be  regulated,  not  by 
the  pleasure  and  appointment  of  men,  but  according  to  the  Word 
of  God,  and  in  the  same  year  maintained  in  a  public  disputation, 
that  the  church  has  no  authority,  on  pretext  of  decorating  Divine 
service,  to  devise  ceremonies,  and  impose  upon  them  significations 
of  her  own.  Row,  referring  to  the  six  ministers,  including  Knox 
and  himself,  who  were  employed  to  draw  up  the  First  Book  of 
Discipline,  says,  "  They  took  not  their  example  from  any  kirk  in 
the  world ;  no,  not  from  Geneva ;  but  drew  their  plan  from  the 
sacred  Scriptures."  It  was  in  this  way,  we  believe,  that  Knox 
formed  those  views  of  the  Sabbath,  which  were  afterwards  so 
fully  expounded  by  the  Puritans,  and  to  which  his  country  owes 
so  much.  That  the  Puritans  were  indebted  to  him  on  the  subject, 
we  do  not  affirm.  We  know  that  he  took  some  part  in  revising 
the  Articles  of  the  English  Church,  effected  some  alterations  in  her 
service-book,  had  much  influence  with  the  authorities,  and  produced 
great  impression  by  his  preaching,  while  from  1549  to  the  end  of 
1553  he  resided  in  England  ;  and  we  should  conceive  it  more  likely 
that  the  Puritans  borrowed  from  him,  than,  as  has  been  supposed, 
he  from  them.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  either  case,  as 
the  more  that  men  make  the  Scriptures  their  study  and  their  rule, 
the  uiore  will  they  "  see  eye  to  eye.'' 


470  THE  SABBATH  IXKFEWT>cn. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MILTON  AND  OTHER  EMINENT  MEN. 

WE  are  not  done  yet  with  the  argument  which  arrays  against 
a  holy  Sabbath  a  few  great  names.  Although  it  has  failed  as 
respects  the  Keformers,  those  who  advance  it  have  other  names  in 
reserve,  of  which  the  greatest  is  John  Milton.  True  it  is,  that  even 
after  the  Puritan  training  which  he  had  received  from  his  learned 
and  idolized  tutor,  and  after  uttering  as  with  "  the  tongues  of 
angels"  the  praises  of  Him  who 

"  From  work, 

Now  resting,  blessed  and  hallowed  the  seventh  day, 
As  resting  on  that  day  from  all  his  work" — 

Milton  did  indeed,  by  his  latterly  abandoning  public  and  domes 
tic  worship,  and  by  a  posthumous  attack  on  the  authority  of 
the  Christian  Sabbath,  lend  his  influence  to  opinions  subversive 
of  three  kindred  institutions,  to  which  in  his  youth  and  man 
hood  he  owed  the  direction  and  impulse  that  issued  in  his  noble 
prose  writings,  and  in  his  yet  nobler  poetry.  "  In  the  dis 
tribution  of  his  hours,"  as  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  Life  of  the  Poet 
observes,  "  there  was  no  hour  of  prayer,  either  solitary  or  with 
his  household  ;  omitting  public  prayers,  he  omitted  all."  In 
such  circumstances,  the  less  that  is  said  of  Milton's  hostility 
to  us  the  better.  The  melancholy  change  of  religious  practice, 
to  which  his  biographer  refers,  not  merely  neutralizes  his  anti- 
Sabbatic  influence,  but  is  a  potent  argument  for  his  former  and 
against  his  latter  creed.  We  would  recommend  to  our  op 
ponents  to  say  nothing  of  another  remarkable  man,  Selden,  who 
has  written  more  learnedly  than  satisfactorily  respecting  the  Sab 
bath  in  his  De  Jure  Naturali  et  Gentium.  For  they  will  be 


MILTON  AND  OTHERS.  471 

reminded  that  this  prodigy  of  lore  was  a  member  of  the  West 
minster  Assembly,  did  not  appear  to  intimate  at  any  of  its  meet 
ings  dissent  from  its  doctrine  on  the  Sabbath,  and  subscribed  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  while  in  the  following  words  he 
takes  a  middle  course  between  the  tenets  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  those  of  the  anti-Sabbatists  :  "  Why  should  I  think 
all  the  Fourth  Commandment  belongs  to  me,  when  all  the  Fifth 
does  not  1  What  land  will  the  Lord  give  me  for  honouring  my 
father  1  It  was  spoken  to  the  Jews  with  reference  to  the  land 
of  Canaan,  but  the  meaning  is,  if  I  honour  my  parents,  God  will 
also  bless  me.  We  read  the  commandments  in  the  Church  ser 
vice,  as  we  do  David's  Psalms  ;  not  that  all  concerns  us,  but  a  great 
deal  of  them  does."1  It  is  affirmed  of  Selden  that  he  "seems  to 
have  been  often  led  by  the  current  of  circumstances  to  act  against 
his  personal  convictions."  He,  therefore,  is  not  a  man  of  suck 
religious  and  moral  weight  as  to  turn  the  scale  against  the  per 
petual  obligation  of  a  weekly  day  of  entire  rest  and  worship. 
Exceptions  might  also  be  taken  to  others  of  the  class,  who  are 
relied  on  as  authorities  against  us. 

Were  the  question  to  be  decided  by  mere  names,  the  friends  of 
the  Sabbath  would  have  no  reason  to  shrink  from  the  trial.  But 
they  disclaim  such  means  of  settling  it.  They  bear  in  mind  that 
no  human  being  is  infallible  or  to  be  held  entitled  to  prescribe  a 
creed  to  his  fellow-creatures,  that  their  duty  is  to  try  the  spirits 
and  prove  all  things,  and  that  the  greatest,  wisest,  and  best  of 
mankind  fall  into  errors,  which  tend  to  recall  us  from  confidence 
in  men,  to  entire  trust  only  in  the  Infinite.  They  yet,  consistently 
with  all  this,  believe  that  they  ought  to  despise  no  man,  that 
much  importance  may  justly  be  attached  to  the  opinions  of  the 
learned,  and  particularly  of  those  who  combine  goodness  with  in 
telligence,  and  it  becomes  us  to  consider  well  before  we  dissent 
from  views  which  have  been  entertained  by  persons  of  the  greatest 
mental  and  moral  excellence,  and,  especially,  on  which  the  Catho 
lic  Church  has  uttered  all  but  a  unanimous  voice.  Before,  then, 
we  agree  to  follow  Milton,  let  us  hear  what  other  oracles  have 
uttered,  and  then  bring  all  to  the  oracles  that  are  sacred  au-i 
Divine. 

i  Table  Talk,  1819,  p.  lt». 


472  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

In  questions  that  concern  our  physical  frame,  we  naturally  apply 
for  information,  and  appeal  for  judgment,  to  persons  who  have 
made  the  human  body  their  study,  or  by  reason  of  their  occupa 
tions  in  life  have  had  better  means  than  others  of  knowing  the 
effects  of  labour  and  rest.  Dr.  Carpenter,  who  stands  at  the  head 
of  physiologists,  has  said,  "  My  own  experience  is  very  strong  as 
to  the  importance  of  the  complete  rest  and  change  of  thought  once 
in  the  week  ;"  and  Dr.  Farre's  well-known  testimony  to  the  neces 
sity  of  the  weekly  Sabbath  as  respects  health,  has  been  corrobo 
rated  by  many  physicians  of  this  country  and  America,  without 
having,  so  far  as  we  have  observed,  been  contradicted  by  any.  "  He 
could,  as  an  old  soldier,"  said  Major- General  Anderson  of  himself, 
at  the  recent  annual  meeting  of  the  Sabbath  Alliance,  "  give  an 
emphatic  testimony  in  favour  of  the  Sabbath.  For  a  good  many 
years  before  he  gave  up  his  last  command,  his  duties  were  of  a 
more  arduous  nature  than  fell  to  the  general  lot  of  men,  particu 
larly  during  the  Crimean  war,  when  latterly  he  knew  not,  from 
an  early  hour  in  the  morning  till  a  late  hour  at  night,  what 
it  was  to  have  an  hour's  rest.  He  looked  forward  with  most 
anxious  desire  for  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath,  and  felt  on  the  Satur 
day  as  if  he  could  not  have  gone  on  longer.  But  for  the  Sabbath, 
he  hesitated  not  to  say  that  he  would  have  sunk  under  the  pro 
tracted  and  incessant  toil  to  which  he  was  exposed.  God  blessed 
the  Sabbath-day  to  his  poor,  exhausted  frame  ;  he  was  strength 
ened,  and,  he  trusted,  refreshed  also  in  spirit,  so  that  he  was 
able  to  discharge  his  duties  till  the  close."1  The  sighs  and 
groans  of  animal  nature  in  man  and  beast,  wherever  oppressed 
by  unbroken  labour,  proclaim  the  indispensable  need  of  a  Sab 
bath. 

Another  valuable  class  of  witnesses  on  this  subject  are  our  hard 
students,  our  philosophers,  who  are  well  acquainted  with  the  laws 
of  mind  or  matter  ;  our  philologists,  who  are  versed  in  languages 
and  criticism  ;  and  our  men  of  historical  research,  who,  in  the 
successes  and  failures  of  the  past,  see  rules  and  beacons  for  the 
present  and  future.  Let  the  laborious  Principal  Forbes,  Isaac 
Taylor,  and  Henry  Rogers,  express  the  value  of  the  Sabbath  to 
students.  Lord  Bacon,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Dr.  Wallis,  John 

i  Daily  Rtritw,  February  11,  18(52. 


MILTON  AND  OTHERS.  473 

L«»cke,  and  Sir  David  Brewster,  shall  guarantee  the  philosophy 
of  the  institution.  Archbishop  Ussher,  Drs.  Owen  and  Kenni- 
cott,  Sir  William  Jones,  Dr.  Jamreson,  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  and  Pro 
fessor  S.  Lee,  have  proved  by  their  Sabbatic  opinions — some  of 
them  by  their  researches  on  the  subject  also — that  profound 
erudition  has  accepted  and  justified  the  commonly -received  doc 
trine  of  the  weekly  rest  ;  while  Principal  Lee  and  Lord  Macaulay, 
thoroughly  versant  in  the  annals  of  our  country,  have  shed  some 
vivid  rays  on  our  national  obligations  to  the  institution. 

Magistrates,  statesmen,  judges,  divines,  and  moralists  ought  to 
be  competent  to  say  how  far  a  Sabbath  is  valuable  to  the  moral  or 
the  economical  interests  of  a  State.  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Washing 
ton  knew  well  what  was  necessaiy  to  the  defence  and  prosperity 
of  a  country,  and  the  Sabbath  was  in  their  view  essential  to  a 
virtuous  and  flourishing  people.  No  judge  has  excelled  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  or  lawyer,  Blackstone,  and  they  pleaded  earnestly 
for  a  sanctified  Sabbath.  Lord  Kames  was  both  a  judge  and  a 
philosopher,  and  his  words  were,  "  Sunday  is  a  day  of  account, 
and  a  candid  account  every  seventh  day  is  the  best  preparation 
for  the  great  day  of  account."  No  moral  writer  has  surpassed 
Addison  for  simplicity  and  elegance,  Johnson  for  power  and 
vigour,  and  Foster  for  originality  and  depth,  and  they  appreciated 
and  commended  the  weekly  rest.  The  most  classical  and  beauti 
ful  writer  of  the  English  language,  and  one  of  the  most  impres 
sive  of  pulpit  orators,  Robert  Hall,  was  a  conscientious  observer  of 
the  Lord's  day.  The  clear-headed,  logical,  and  persuasive  Ward- 
law  defended  a  careful  attention  to  Sabbatic  duties.  Henry, 
"  the  prince  of  commentators,"  and  Bunyan,  the  author  of  the 
finest  allegory  in  any  language,  pleaded  for  and  practised  the 
sanctification  of  the  first  day  of  the  week.  And  the  institution 
has  been  venerated  by  Howe,  Bishop  Hopkins,  Lightfoot,  Burnet, 
Stillingfleet,  Tillotson,  Doddridge,  Dean  Prideaux,  Dr.  Samuel 
Clarke,  Rev.  Thomas  Scott,  Dr.  Dwight,  Dr.  M'Crie,  Dr.  Paxton, 
Dr.  Dick,  Dr.  John  Brown,  and  many  others  of  the  greatest  name 
in  theological  literature. 

Men  of  rank  form  a  peculiar  class,  among  whom  temptations 
to  vice  are  many  and  great,  and  any  voice  that  proceeds  from  such 
a  quarter  calling  for  a  weekly  restraint  on  their  own  pleasures, 


474  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

and  a  general  pause  of  labour  to  servants  and  working  men,  is 
entitled  to  respect.  Such  persons  have  been  a  Lord  Harrington, 
a  Lord  Dartmouth,  who  could  "  wear  a  coronet  and  pray,"  and 
Lord  Gambier ;  and  such  are  some  of  our  nobility  in  present 
times.  "  Whether  at  sea  or  on  shore,"  it  is  said  of  Lord 
Gambier,  "  our  departed  friend  duly  and  devotedly  observed  the 
day  of  the  Lord,  that  day  which  is  so  awfully  desecrated  in  this 
Christian  land.  During  the  thirty  years  that  I  had  the  happi 
ness  to  number  him  in  my  congregation,  his  attendance  in  the 
sanctuary  was  uniform.  Whoever  was  absent,  he  was  there,  as 
long  as  the  state  of  his  health  would  admit.  Nor  did  he  think 
it  sufficient  to  come  once  to  worship  on  the  Sabbath  :  this  pious 
servant  of  God  made  conscience  of  attending  both  the  morning 
and  evening  services  ;  and  whenever  the  Lord's  Supper  was  ad 
ministered,  he  was  a  regular  guest  at  the  sacred  table."1  Nor 
have  there  been  wanting  instances  of  crowned  heads,  like  our  late 
King  George  in.  and  the  Protector,  who  have  not  been  ashamed 
to  "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy." 

It  is  not  unimportant  to  have  the  testimony  of  persons  of 
superior  talents  and  sagacity  adduced  in  favour  of  a  cause  of 
which  they  are  not  partisans  or  plighted  supporters.  Let  those 
who  would  sneeringly  impugn  the  sacred  observance  of  the  Lord's 
day,  ponder  the  words  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  was-  placed  in 
early  life  under  a  religious  training  as  strict  as  any  Covenanter  or 
Puritan,  and  who,  though  no  Sabbatarian,  said,  "  Give  to  the 
world  one-half  of  Sunday,  and  you  will  find  that  religion  has 
no  strong  hold  of  the  other."  How  far  another  mind,  worthy  of 
a  station  near  the  greatest,  was  indebted  to  the  lessons  and  disci 
pline  of  a  Sabbath,  we  are  not  aware.  Dr.  Sprague  informs  us 
that  the  Practical  View  had,  according  to  the  statement  of  Mr. 
Wilberforce,  the  author,  the  cordial  approbation  of  Burke,  who 
must  have  uttered  his  opinion  in  the  year  that  he  died.  We 
know  that  the  great  statesman  and  orator  sought  his  chief  solace 
in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  We  might  presume  also,  from  his 
language  in  condemning  the  sittings  of  the  National  Assembly  of 

1  Ward's  Funeral  Sermon  for  Admiral  Lord  Gambier.  He  refers  to  his  devout  and 
fervent  manner  in  worship,— and  his  piety  as  not  confined  to  stated  seasons  of  devo 
tion,  but  hallowing  and  gladdening  his  whole  life.— Christian  Observer  (1833),  507. 


MILTON  AND  OTHEES.  475 

France  on  the  Lord's  day,  that  he  had  experienced  its  rest  to  be 
a  benefit  to  Ms  apdent  and  active  spirit,  which,  fully  knowing 
the  injury  of  great  tension  of  thought,  could  therefore  prize  the 
value  of  a  stated  interval  of  repose  and  relief  .to  its  overtasked 
powers.  Dr.  Adam  Smith  was  still  more  exempt,  we  suspect, 
from  Sabbatic  prepossessions  than  either  Sir  Walter  Scott  or  Mr. 
Burke,  and  yet  we  find  him  attesting  the  importance  of  religious 
institutions  to  the  welfare  of  society  in  his  Wealth  of  Nations, 
and  in  his  already  cited  words  addressed  to  Sir  John  Sinclair. 

We  have  more  than  once  adverted  to  Milton  in  connexion  with 
the  institution  ;  in  one  place  as  "  surrendering  every  authoritative 
claim  of  the  Lord's  day,  except  what  it  derives  from  ecclesiastical 
appointment,"1  and  in  another  as  having  discontinued  the  ob 
servance  of  public  and  private  worship.  Let  us  now  see  how  the 
Sabbath  was  regarded  by  a  few  others,  who,  like  him,  by  general 
acclaim,  occupy  a  pre-eminent  place  among  the  intellectually  great. 
Of  Lord  Bacon,  it  was  said  by  Ben  Jonson,  that  he  seemed  to 
him  "  one  of  the  greatest  men  and  most  worthy  of  admiration  that 
had  been  in  many  ages  ;"  and  the  lapse  of  time  has  detracted 
nothing  from,  but  rather  confirmed  the  eulogium.  He  erred,  but. 
who  has  not  1  and  the  following  words  may  be  regarded  as  the 
language  at  once  of  the  penitent,  and  of  the  friend  to  Christian 
institutions  :  "  I  have  loved  the  assemblies,  I  have  delighted  in 
the  brightness  of  thy  sanctuary.  .  .  .  Thy  creatures  have  been 
my  books,  but  thy  Scriptures  much  more.  I  have  sought  thee  in 
the  courts,  fields,  and  gardens,  but  I  have  found  thee  in  thy 
temples." 2  Laplace,  a  fitting  judge,  has  observed  that  the  dis 
coveries  and  profound  views  presented  in  The  Principia,  "  will 
insure  to  it  a  lasting  pre-eminence  over  all  other  productions  of 
the  human  mind ; "  and  it  is  deeply  interesting  to  connect  with 
this  signal  tribute  to  the  genius  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  the  state 
ments  of  his  biographer,  that  his  observance  of  the  religious  insti 
tutions  of  his  church  was  irreproachable,  and  that  the  book 
which  he  read  with  the  greatest  assiduity  was  the  Bible.3  In 
the  same  order  of  minds  as  Bacon  and  Newton,  although  he  has 
not  attained  their  high  reputation,  or  exhibited  their  variety  of 

1  Page  143.  *  Worltt  (1852),  vol.  ii  p.  406. 

»  Li/e  (Tract  Society),  p.  82. 


476  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

gifts,  some  have  been  disposed  to  rank  President  Edwards^  of 
America,  whose  powers  Hume,  Mackintosh,  Stewart,  and  Chal 
mers  have  alike  honoured,  and  whom  Kobert  Hall  characterized, 
somewhat  extravagantly  indeed,  as  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of 
men.  "  Never,"  says  Henry  Rogers,  "  was  a  triumph  of  genius 
more  decisive  than  that  of  Jonathan  Edwards.  By  the  concur 
rent  voice  of  all  who  have  perused  his  writings,  he  is  assigned 
one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first  place,  among  the  masters  of 
human  reason."1  Now,  Edwards  was  eminently  a  nurseling,  as 
well  as  an  unanswerable  defender  of  the  Sabbatic  rest  and  influ 
ences  ;  and  "  his  observation  of  the  Sabbath  was  such  as  to 
make  it  throughout  a  day  of  real  religion  ;  so  that  not  only  were 
his  conversation  and  reading  conformed  to  the  great  design  of  the 
day,  but  he  allowed  himself  in  no  thoughts  or  meditations  which 
were  not  of  a  decidedly  religious  character."2 

More  important  far,  however,  than  worldly  rank,  scholarship, 
talent,  or  genius,  is  moral  excellence  ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  chief 
glories  of  the  Sabbath  that  it  has  ever  been  the  object  of  venera 
tion  and  regard  to  the  men  who  have  risen  to  the  highest  point  in 
the  scale  of  piety,  or  been  the  most  ardent  in  benevolent  exertion 
and  philanthropic  enterprise.  Where  shall  we  find  the  fire  of 
devotion  and  love  burn  more  intensely  than  in  the  breasts  of 
Baxter,  Rutherford,  Leighton,  Brainerd,  Simeon,  Bickersteth  1  or 
bowels  of  compassion  for  suffering  humanity  yearn  more  tenderly 
aud  constantly  than  in  Howard,  Clarkson,  Wilberforce,  Buxton  1 
or  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  desire  for  the  eternal  good  of  men 
glow  more  strongly  than  in  Eliot,  Martyn,  Carey,  Chalmers  1 — all 
of  whom  felt  the  Sabbath  to  be  a  delight,  and  esteemed  the  holy  of 
the  Lord,  honourable.  And  some  there  have  been,  as  Jonathan 
Edwards,  in  whom  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  the  powers  of  intel 
lect,  or  the  religious  affections,  were  the  more  transcendent.  It  is 
a  memorable  saying  of  Dr.  Chalmers  :  "  We  never,  in  the  whole 
course  of  our  recollections,  met  with  a  Christian  friend,  who  bore 
upon  his  character  every  other  evidence  of  the  Spirit's  operation, 
who  did  not  remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy  ;"3  and  the 
fervent  M'Cheyne  asks,  "  Can  you  name  one  godly  minister,  of 

1  Essay  on  the  Genius  anc]   Writings  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  prefixed  to   Work* 
(1839),  p.  1.  2  Works  (1S30),  Life,  p.  cexxv.  »  Wtrrfa,  vol.  ix.  ;>.  3S5. 


MILTON  AND  OTHERS.  477 

any  denomination  in  all  Scotland,  who  does  not  hold  the  duty  of 
the  entire  sanctification  of  the  Lord's  day  1  Did  you  ever  meet 
with  a  lively  believer  in  any  countiy  under  heaven — one  who 
loved  Christ,  and  lived  a  holy  life — who  did  not  delight  in  keep 
ing  holy  to  God  the  entire  Lord's  day  I"1 

It  is  recorded  of  Eliot,  the  missionary,  "His  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  was  remarkable.  He  knew  that  our  whole  religion 
fares  according  to  our  Sabbaths ;  that  poor  Sabbaths  make  poor 
Christians  ;  and  that  a  strictness  in  our  Sabbaths  inspires  a  vigour 
into  all  our  other  duties.  Hence,  in  his  work  among  the  Indians, 
he  brought  them,  by  a  particular  article,  to  bind  themselves,  as  a 
principal  means  of  confirming  them  in  Christianity,  '  To  remem 
ber  the  Sabbath-day  tu  keep  it  holy,  as  long  as  we  live.'  For 
himself,  the  sun  did  not  set  the  evening  before  the  Sabbath 
till  he  had  begun  his  preparation  for  it.  Every  day  was  a 
sort  of  Sabbath  to  him ;  but  the  Sabbath-day  was  with  him 
a  type  and  foretaste  of  heaven  ;  nor  would  you  hear  anything 
drop  from  his  lips  on  that  day  but  the  milk  and  honey  of  that 
country,  in  which  there  yet  '  remaineth  a  rest  for  the  people  of 
God.'"2 

Howard  thus  writes,  "Turin,  Nov.  30,  1769. — My  return 
without  seeing  the  southern  part  of  Italy  was  on  much  delibera 
tion,  as  I  feared  a  misimprovement  of  a  talent  spent  for  mere 
curiosity  at  the  loss  of  many  Sabbaths,  and  as  many  donations  [to 
the  poor]  must  be  suspended  for  my  pleasure." 

"Hoping,"  he  said,  at  a  later  period,  "I  shall  be  carried  safely 
to  my  native  country  and  friends,  and  see  the  face  of  my  dear 
boy  in  peace,  remember,  0  my  soul,  to  cultivate  a  more  serious, 
humble,  thankful,  and  resigned  temper  of  mind.  As  thou  hast 
seen  more  of  the  world  by  travelling  than  others — more  of  the 
happiness  of  being  born  in  a  Protestant  country,  and  the  dreadful 
abuse  of  holy  Sabbaths — so  may  thy  walk,  thy  Sabbaths,  thy  con 
versation,  be  more  becoming  the  Holy  Gospel.  Let  not  pride  and 
vanity  fill  up  so -much  of  thy  thoughts  ;  learn  here  [in  Rome]  the 
vanity  and  folly  of  all  earthly  grandeur  ;  endeavour  to  be  a  wisei 
and  better  man  when  thou  returnest.  Kemember  many  eyes  will 

1  Memoir  and  Remains  (1846),  pp.  561,  562- 
»  Mitzionary  Register,  vol.  ii.  (for  1814),  p.  310. 

21* 


478  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

be  upon  thee,  and,  above  all,  the  eye  of  that  God  before  whom 
thou  will  shortly  have  to  appear." 

"  As  will  have  been  gathered  from  the  foregoing,  Sunday  was 
with  Howard  a  sacred  day — a  section  of  times  not  belonging  to 
this  life  or  to  this  world.  He  never  travelled,  nor  did  any  manner 
of  work  on  it.  When  on  the  road,  he  rested  the  Sabbath  over 
in  whatsover  place  the  accidents  of  the  journey  might  have  con 
ducted  him  to.  If  no  opportunities  offered  for  attending  public 
worship,  he  retired  for  the  whole  day  into  his  secret  chamber,  and 
passed  it  in  pious  services  and  spiritual  self-examinations.  "* 
i  Bison's  iifeq/  Howard  (aaeoad  edition),  pp.  10T,  119, 120. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  479 


CHAPTEK  III. 

THEORIES  TRIED  BY  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  DIVINE 
GOVERNMENT. 

IT  is  intended  to  apply  in  some  following  chapters  certain  tests 
derived  from  both  Reason  and  Revelation,  to  the  leading  opinions 
that  have  been  entertained  on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbath,  with 
the  view  of  adjudicating  on  their  conflicting  claims.  As  we  pro 
ceed,  occasion  will  be  afforded  for  adverting  to  the  more  important 
arguments  which  have  been  advanced,  and  to  several  schemes 
which  have  been  propounded,  in  reference  to  the  institution.  The 
test  to  be  applied  in  this  chapter  is  furnished  in  those  principles 
of  the  Divine  government,  which  are  discovered  in  its  history,  and 
more  plainly  in  the  inspired  volume. 

1.  One  of  such  principles  is  unity  of  plan.  In  proving  "the 
unity"  of  God  from  "  the  uniformity"  observable  in  the  physical 
universe,  Dr.  Paley  has  truly  and  beautifully  said,  "  We  never  get 
amongst  such  original  or  totally  different  modes  of  existence  as  to 
indicate  that  we  are  come  into  the  province  of  a  different  Creator, 
or  under  the  direction  of  a  different  will." l  In  confirmation  of 
this  statement,  he  refers,  among  various  facts,  to  the  one  law  of 
attraction  carrying  all  the  planets  about  the  sun,  one  atmosphere 
investing  and  connecting  all  parts  of  the  globe,  one  moon  in 
fluencing  all  tides,  and  one  kind  of  blood  circulating  in  all  ani 
mals.  What  is  true  of  the  material  is  no  less  true  of  the  moral 
world  in  all  its  known  provinces  and  eras.  In  physical  nature  we 
observe  an  endless  variety  of  bodies  and  phenomena  under  the 
uniform  regulation  of  great  common  principles,  and  in  like  man 
ner,  amidst  a  diversity  of  circumstances  and  forms,  we  discover  a 
pervading  unity  in  .the  laws  of  the  moral  government  of  God. 
We  find  the  same  benevolence,  sovereignty,  and  love  of  righteous- 

1  Works,  Nat.  Theol.  ch.  xxv. 


480  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

ness  reigning  in  the  Divine  procedure  ;  one  Saviour  for  Jew  and 
Gentile,  one  method  of  justification,  and  one  indispensable  requi 
site  of  regeneration,  in  all  ages  ;  one  kind  of  worship  substantially 
offered,  and  one  moral  code  obeyed,  by  Adam,  Abraham,  Moses, 
David,  and  Paul ;  and  one  Church,  which,  in  obedience  to  the 
Divine  call — "  Enlarge  the  place  of  thy  tent,  and  let  them  stretch 
forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habitations"  (Isa.  liv.  2) — has  passed 
from  a  circumscribed  into  an  extended  economy.  In  holding  that 
the  great  Master  has  ever  regulated  the  time  of  his  servants — • 
that  the  King  of  kings  has  never  been  without  his  appointed 
seasons  for  receiving  the  petitions  and  homage  of  his  subjects,  the 
theories  that  maintain  a  permanent  and  universal  Sabbath  pre 
serve  the  consistency  of  the  Divine  administration.  But  the  other 
theories  violate  this  harmony  when  they  suppose  that  for  many 
centuries  there  was  no  Sabbath  at  all,  and  then,  for  many  more,  a 
Sabbath  rigidly  ruled,  and  when  they  countenance  either  the 
entire  abolition  of  the  sacred  day,  or  the  new  appointment  of  a 
partial  one,  a  dies  intercisus,  or  the  opinion  that  the  arrangement 
of  resting  and  holy  time  has  been  left  entirely  to  human  dis 
cretion.  We  confidently  ask  whether,  in  passing  from  the  Patri 
archal  to  the  Jewish,  and  then  to  the  Christian  manner  of  religion 
and  life  as  represented  by  these  theories,  we  do  not  find  ourselves 
amongst  so  original  and  totally  different  modes  of  existence  as  to 
indicate  that  we  are  come  under  the  direction  of  a  different  will  1 
2.  It  is  at  the  same  time  a  character  of  the  Divine  government 
that  its  plans  are  progressive  in  their  development  ;  that,  while 
the  great  outlines  are  in  all  ages  the  same,  there  is  a  gradual  fill 
ing  up  of  the  scheme.  Paley  and  others  imagine  a  transition 
from  no  Sabbath  to  one  whose  rules  were  of  the  most  stringent 
description,  a  view  implying  not  only  a  violent  change  utterly 
unlike  the  usual  method  of  the  Divine  procedure,  but  the  intro 
duction  of  an  entirely  new  principle,  of  which  we  have  no  paral 
lel  case  in  the  history  of  the  moral  government  of  God.  "We  may 
indeed  be  reminded  of  the  Incarnation  as  an  unprecedented  fact, 
peculiar  to  the  latest  dispensation  of  religion,  but  this  fact  did  not 
burst  on  an  unprepared  world  ;  it  was  intimated  in  the  first  pro 
mise,  it  was  more  clearly  made  known  in  the  prophecies  that  fol 
lowed,  it  was  shadowed  by  frequent  appearances  of  the  Divinity 


THEORIES  TRIEB.  481 

in  human  form,  and  its  benefit  was  really  enjoyed  by  all  believers 
in  ancient  times.  It  is  like  the  Atonement,  which,  though  not 
actually  made  till  thousands  of  years  had  elapsed,  was  from  the 
beginning  a  declared  principle  and  felt  blessing  of  religion.  The 
objection  from  the  Incarnation  would  be  in  point,  if  the  Sabbath 
had  been  anticipated  and  its  good  realized  long  before  it  came 
into  existence.  This,  however,  could  not  be.  Advantage  may 
and  does  spring  from  a  future  moral  fact,  but  not  from  a  prospec 
tive  institute.  Nor  is  the  theory  which  restricts  the  Sabbath  of 
Christianity  to  the  old  day  less  opposed  to  the  principle  of  pro 
gress.  While  Paley  introduces  an  element  so  new  in  its  nature, 
and  so  abrupt  in  its  entrance,  as  to  disturb  the  orderly  and  equable 
march  of  the  Divine  government,  this  altogether  arrests  it,  and 
stays  progress  and  improvement.  It  stereotypes  a  moral  precept 
on  a  mere  accident.  It  is  an  attempt,  however  undesigned,  to 
perpetuate  Judaism.  It  reverses  the  command  to  forget  the 
things  which  are  behind,  and  to  reach  forth  to  those  which  are 
before.  How  much  more  consonant  that  any  of  these  theories, 
to  an  identical  and  yet  advancing  scheme,  is  that  of  a  Sabbath 
which,  as  the  same  holy  and  benignant  institution  in  all  time, 
presents  a  history,  not  of  unnatural  stagnation  or  of  violent  tran 
sitions,  but  of  harmony  with  the  unfolding  plans  of  its  Author, 
subserving  the  piety  and  bliss  of  paradise  ;  then  sustaining  the 
hope  of  a  coming  Saviour,  as  well  as  faith  in  the  Creator ;  now 
commemorating,  along  with  the  ever-to-be-remernbered  fact  of 
a  finished  creation,  the  more  glorious  fact  of  a  perfected  redemp 
tion,  and  offering  a  more  immediate  and  satisfying  foretaste  of 
heavenly  joy  •  and,  finally,  receiving  its  highest  and  most  last 
ing  honour  at  the  consummation  of  all  things,  when,  entirely 
transferred  to  the  world  above,  it  will  be  the  sole  measure  of  the 
eternal  life ! 

3.  A  regard  to  order  is  a  manifest  feature  of  the  Divine  rule. 
"  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion."  He  who  requires  that  all 
things  should  be  "  done  decently  and  in  order,"  is  Himself  the 
perfection  and  pattern  of  His  own  law.  The  Great  Master  "  gives 
authority  to  His  servants,  and  to  every  man  his  work."  In  cor 
respondence  with  this  principle  of  order  which  pervades  the  Divine 
administration,  and  which  prevails  in  every  well-regulated  society 

2  H 


482  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

among  men,  is  the  theory  which  affirms  a  perpetual  Sabbath  ; 
which  affirms,  in  other  words,  that  the  Ruler  of  the  world  has 
never  failed  to  legislate  on  one  of  the  most  important  affairs  of  His 
Court  and  Kingdom — the  days  when  He  will  confer  favours  on 
His  people,  and  receive  their  homage.  But  how  strange  and  ano 
malous  are  the  views  supposed  by  other  theories  that,  while  man 
kind  in  general  have  had  their  distribution  of  time  for  secular 
work  and  sacred  service,  the  only  possessors  of  a  true  religion 
should  for  many  generations  have  been  without  such  arrangement ; 
that  while  "  gods  many  and  lords  many"  "which  are  yet  no  gods," 
have  received  the  tribute  of  periodical  holy  days,  the  only  living 
and  true  God  should  have  been  without  this  order  and  honour, 
and  should  have  introduced  the  custom  only  after  it  had  been 
practised  by  idolaters  and  outcasts  from  His  favour  ;  that  He  who 
regulates  the  time  for  all  other  things,  for  daily  labour  and  nightly 
repose,  for  sowing  and  reaping,  for  the  migrations  of  the  swallow 
and  the  fall  of  a  sparrow  equally  as  for  the  removal  of  kings  and 
the  destruction  of  empires,  in  short,  "  for  every  purpose,"  should 
have,  in  any  instance,  omitted  the  prescription  of  a  season  for  His 
own  immediate  service,  and  what  is  especially  remarkable,  that 
He  should  appoint  such  a  season  for  the  Jews  and  not  for  the 
Patriarchs  or  for  Christians  !  Such  views  involve  a  charge  of  dis 
order,  derogatory  to  the  perfection  of  that  "kingdom  which  ruleth 
over  all,"  And  yet  the  notion  of  a  rigid  adherence  to  one  day, 
the  seventh,  while  it  seems  a  tribute  to  order,  may  in  reality  be  an 
imputation  to  the  Divine  Government  of  a  human  frailty  which 
so  often  amongst  us  perverts  a  noble  virtue  into  the  vice  of  a 
slavish  punctiliousness.  The  Disposer  of  time  is  not  under  its 
control.  "  He  changeth  the  times  and  the  seasons."  "  The  Son 
of  Man  is  Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath."  He  who  commanded 
Israel  on  their  coming  out  of  Egypt  to  commence  their  year  in  a 
different  month,  and  who  abolished  the  years,  months,  and  days 
of  the  Jewish  ceremonial,  has  it  no  less  in  His  power  to  say,  "  It 
is  my  will  that  henceforth  the  first  instead  of  the  last  day  of  the 
week  shall  be  the  day  of  rest  to  the  world,  and  the  day  of  my 
special  worship."  Such  a  change  would  only  be  agreeable  to  the 
authority  which  the  God  of  order  claims  and  has_repeatedly  exer 
cised  over  man's  time,  while  not  to  exert  it  in  this  case  might  be 


THEORIES  TRIED.  483 

to  transgress  the  higher  order  of  assigning  to  Redemption  its 
proper  precedency  among  the  Divine  works. 

4.  Among  the  excellencies  of  the  Divine  government  is  that 
"  goodness  which  endureth  continually."  If  we  refer  to  provi 
dence,  Scripture  and  facts  assure  us  that  "  the  Lord  is  good  to 
all,"  and  that  "  his  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works,"  while 
He  is  peculiarly  kind  to  "  them  that  love  him,  and  are  the  called 
according  to  his  purpose,"  to  whom  "  all  things  work  together  for 
good."  If  we  turn  to  the  scheme  of  redemption,  we  find  that  it 
has  uniformly  combined  with  saving  mercy  to  some,  a  bountiful 
proffer  of  its  blessings  to  all.  Now  it  is  not  in  accordance  with 
either  the  general  philanthropy  or  the  special  love  of  God  to 
conceive  that  the  Sabbath  is  not  a  provision  for  all  time.  It  is 
contrary  to  His  benevolence  to  suppose  that  many  centuries  had 
passed  away  ere  mankind  were  favoured  with  an  institution  which 
has  been  proved  to  be  in  all  respects  so  conducive,  and  even  indis 
pensable,  to  their  wellbeing  ;  and  it  is  especially  contradictory  to 
that  peculiar  regard  which  the  God  of  salvation  entertains  for  His 
own  obedient  children,  to  imagine  that  He  should  have  withheld 
so  great  a  boon  as  the  Sabbath  from  such  men  as  Enoch,  Noah,  and 
Abraham.  Christianity  is,  still  more  than  preceding  dispensations, 
distinguished  by  its  catholicity  and  benevolence  ;  and  how  incon 
gruous  the  idea,  that  it  has  entirely  set  aside  a  law  which  provides 
a  periodical  rest  for  man  and  beast,  or  that,  beyond  two  or  three 
hours  for  public  worship,  it  has  made  no  appointment  for  the  still 
more  important  interests  of  the  soul !  And  what  shall  be  said  of 
their  views  who,  admitting  the  benignant  character,  and  expediency 
of  the  institution,  maintain  nevertheless  that  there  is  no  express 
authority  for  the  Lord's  day  ?  No  express  authority  for  a  day  which 
is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  men  and  the  lower  animals  !  The 
notion,  on  other  grounds  untenable,  is  a  reflection  on  the  love  and 
care  of  the  universal  Kuler,  and  equally  on  the  grace  of  the  Author 
of  Christianity,  as  it  implies  that  the  former  could  cease  to  pre 
serve  man  and  beast,  and  that  the  latter  would  abandon  His  friends 
to  perpetual  and  perplexing  uncertainty  respecting  the  seasons  of 
Divine  worship.  A  better  theory,  however,  not  only  leaves  un- 
iinpeached,  but  glorifies  the  goodness  of  God,  since  it  teaches  the 
doctrine  of  a  Sabbath  instituted  for  man  from  the  beginning,  and 


484  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

destined  to  continue  to  the  end  of  time,  a  Sabbath,  too,  which 
would  have  been  universally  and  uninterruptedly  possessed,  had 
men  not  cast  off  its  salutary  but  for  them  too  holy  restraints  and 
demands,  and  which  the  good  have  never  failed  to  be  favoured 
with,  to  prize,  and  to  enjoy.  That  there  is  no  want  of  express 
authority  for  the  Christian  Sabbath  is  obvious,  not  at  present  to 
mention  still  more  convincing  considerations,  from  the  remarkable 
harmony  among  true  Christians  in  the  matter,  from  their  readi 
ness  in  general  to  recognise  the  obligation  of  the  institution  with 
out  feeling  any  doubt  or  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  path  of  duty, 
and  from  the  profit  and  pleasure  received  by  them  in  proportion 
as  they  devote  a  whole  day  in  seven  to  holy  rest.  And  would  not 
that  small  minority  of  Christians  who  honour  the  Divine  goodness 
by  holding  in  common  with  their  brethren  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Sabbath,  still  more  honour  it  if  they  were  brought  to  see  that  in 
checking  a  superstitious  fondness  for  mere  times,  and  in  magni 
fying  the  new  creation  by  the  transference  of  the  ordinance  from 
the  day  of  a  preparatory  economy,  to  that  which  ushered  in  the 
better  covenant,  it  has  won  for  itself  not  the  least  of  its  benign 
glories  ? 

5.  The  Divine  Ruler  must  regulate  His  subjects  by  laws. 
Without  these  there  could  be  no  good  government.  A  state  of 
things  in  which  every  one  is  allowed  to  do  what  he  pleases,  is 
identical  with  disorganization,  disorder,  and  all  evil.  Better  far 
any  government  than  none.  The  reign  of  Jehovah  is  a  reign  of 
law.  Even  among  those  who  have  not  liked  to  retain  Him  in 
their  knowledge,  His  law  is  recognised  by  their  consciences.  And 
where  He  has  favoured  any  of  the  human  race  with  the  revela 
tion  of  His  merciful  designs  towards  man,  whether  immediately 
after  the  fall,  or  after  they  had  lost  sight  of  them,  there  He  has 
at  the  same  time  made  known  His  will  as  to  all  that  they 
should  do  in  His  service.  The  patriarchs  and  the  Jews  had  the 
means  of  directing  them  in  their  conduct.  And  so  have  Chris 
tians.  They  "  are  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under  the  law  to 
Christ."  And  what  the  excellence  of  the  law  of  God  is  we  are 
abundantly  informed.  It  is  perfect,  exceeding  broad,  spiritual,. 
h°ty>  Just?  and  good. 

But  certain  theories  of  the  Sabbath  appear  to  be   irreconciJ 


THEORIES  TRIED.  485 

able  with  this  character  of  the  Divine  government,  by  detracting 
from  the  excellence,  if  they  do  not  even  set  aside  the  obliga 
tion,  of  the  law  of  God.  For  many  centuries,  according  to  several 
of  them,  there  was  no  rule  for  a  Sabbath  ;  during  the  period  of 
the  Mosaic  economy,  there  were  very  definite,  and  full,  and  solemn 
regulations  on  that  subject  ;  and,  under  Christianity,  there  is  no 
authorized  day  for  rest  and  worship,  say  some,  and  none,  say 
others,  beyond  the  appropriation  of  a  day  to  rest,  and  of  a  few 
of  its  hours  to  Divine  service.  And  yet  the  supporters  of  all 
these  theories  regard  the  Sabbath  as  a  great  and  indispensable 
blessing.  But  such  views  exhibit  Divine  legislation  as  at  one 
time  complete  and  at  another  imperfect,  wholly  or  in  part  over 
looking  the  provision  of  an  acknowledged  necessary  boon  and 
direction  relative  to  the  important  matter  of  the  seasons  in  which 
the  social  worship  of  God  is  to  be  observed  ;  in  other  words,  as 
a  matter  of  partiality  and  fluctuation.  Nor  is  this  all.  These 
theorists  set  aside  from  being  a  law  to  us  not  only  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  but  the  other  nine  as  given  from  Sinai.  The 
laws  of  the  New  Testament,  according  to  them,  are  our  only  rule 
of  conduct.  Thus  we  are  without  law.  For  the  New  Testament 
has  no  law  of  its  own.  It  is  a  commentary,  not  a  law. 

The  doctrine  of  a  perpetual  Sabbath,  on  the  other  hand,  recog 
nises  the  Divine  law  as,  like  its  Author,  perfect  and  immutable ; 
as  holy  and  impartial,  prescribing  the  same  distribution  of  time  for 
men  of  all  ages  and  nations — as  good,  setting  forth  the  Divine  will 
in  clear  and  unequivocal  terms,  and  providing  a  day  of  rest  and 
worship  adapted  for  all.  Let  it  not  be  considered  as  a  satisfactory 
reply  to  this  view,  that  some  things  were  required  of  the  Jews 
that  are  not  required  of  us,  and  that  many  such  changes  have 
taken  place  under  the  government  of  God.  It  is  true  that  the  an 
cients  were  to  offer  sacrifice  in  anticipation  of  a  Saviour,  while  we 
are  to  observe  the  Lord's  Supper  in  memory  of  a  Saviour ;  that 
there  is  a  wide  difference  between  heathen  men  and  Christians,  in 
respect  of  the  measure  of  obligation  and  responsibility  ;  that  the 
Jews  were  to  observe  certain  feasts,  annual  and  monthly,  as  well 
as  the  sacred  rest  of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  while  we  are  to 
observe  only  one  stated  day,  and  that,  the  first  day  of  the  week* 
The  varieties  in  all  these  cases  are  in  the  circumstances  of  man- 


486  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

Jrind,  not  in  the  law.  These  circumstances  determine  the 
cation  of  the  one  law,  without  altering  it  by  a  single  jot  or  tittle. 
To  imagine,  however,  a  change  from  no  Sabbath  to  a  Sabbath, 
and  then  from  a  Sabbath  to  none  at  all,  or  to  one  that  is  limited 
to  two  or  three  hours,  is  to  imagine  a  change  not  in  the  circum 
stances  but  in  the  essential  principles  of  law  and  government, 
since  one  day  of  rest  and  worship  in  the  seven  is  a  statute  founded 
on  the  Divine  example  at  the  Creation  of  the  world,  and  on  the 
demonstrated  demands  of  the  human  constitution  :  moreover,  be 
the  matter  what  it  may,  we  are  not  legislators,  but  subjects  bound 
in  everything  to  obey  our  Divine  Sovereign,  who  has  given  us  a 
rule  that  embraces  all  our  thoughts,  words,  and  actions.  And 
whatever  changes  may  take  place  in  the  circumstances  of  the  Sab 
bath,  it  is  not  conceivable  that  these  can  ever  be  in  the  direction 
of  diminishing  its  value  or  the  amount  of  its  time.  The  new  fact 
of  a  finished  redemption,  and  the  increased  privileges  entailed  by 
it,  only  serve  more  clearly  to  show  the  importance  of  the  institu 
tion,  and  to  supply  motives  for  its  more  spiritual  and  earnest  ob 
servance  ;  while,  instead  of  subtracting  from  its  allotted  and  neces 
sary  time,  they  direct  our  views,  and  approximate  us  more  nearly 
to  the  eternal  period  when  the  condition  of  man  no  longer  requir 
ing  the  labour  of  six  days  for  the  supply  of  his  bodily  wants,  his 
whole  time  shall  be  sacred  time ;  his  exclusive  occupation  that  of 
keeping  a  Sabbath. 

We  deny  not  to  those  friends  of  the  institution  who  cling  to 
its  ancient  day  the  credit  of  a  conscientious  respect  for  the  law 
of  the  Ten  Commandments.  But  we  conceive  that  their  scheme 
and  pleadings  do,  in  fact,  misrepresent  and  dishonour  that  law. 
It  is  right  to  ascertain  and  vindicate  its  real  meaning.  But 
assuredly  the  Lawgiver  must  be  the  best  interpreter  of  His  own 
law.  Now,  we  find  two  things  done  by  His  apostles,  who  must 
have  acted  in  both  by  His  authority,  else  their  writings  are  not 
a  part  of  the  Word  of  God,  nor  their  example,  though  expressly 
declared  to  be  so,  a  ride  for  us.  The  Jewish  Sabbath-days  are 
repealed,  as  "  a  shadow  of  things  to  come,"  and  yet  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  worshipping  assemblies  are  repeatedly  declared 
to  be  held  by  the  apostles  and  the  Christian  churches.  While  it 
would  be  as  absurd  to  infer  from  these  facts  a  change  in  the 


THEORIES  TRIED.  487 

fourth  commandment  as  it  would  be  to  suppose  that  the  fifth  is 
no  longer  binding  on  those  who  are  not  resident  in  "the  land" 
to  which  it  primarily  referred;  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be 
no  less  absurd,  in  opposition  to  inspired  interpretation,  to  construe 
the  former  as  binding  us  to  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day. 
Let  it  be  observed,  in  a  word,  that  an  opinion  which  insists  on 
such  a  meaning  of  the  expression,  "  the  seventh  day,"  as  brings 
the  statute  into  collision  with  apostolic  appointment  and  practice, 
when  the  language  admits  of  another  and  harmonious  explanation, 
and  which  lends  a  perpetual  glory  to  a  day  no  longer,  according 
to  a  sacred  writer,  to  be  gloried  in,  strikes,  in  one  blow,  at  the 
authority  of  the  New  Testament,  of  the  Sabbath  law,  and  of  the 
entire  Decalogue. 

6.  In  close  connexion  with  the  principle  of  an  administration 
by  law,  is  another  principle  in  the  government  of  God,  that  of  an 
exclusively  Divine  legislation.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Most 
High  to  frame  and  authorize  the  rules  by  which  His  worship  and 
service  are  to  be  conducted.  According  as  this  right  is  recognised 
in  Sabbatic  theories  may  we  estimate  their  truth. 

Theorists  have  not  been  satisfied  with  shaping  Divine  laws  to 
their  own  views  and  wishes,  but,  to  complete  the  dishonour  done 
to  the  Lawgiver,  they  have  fancied  man  himself  rightfully  vault 
ing  into  the  seat,  and  seizing  the  reins  of  government.  The 
Church,  say  some,  has  the  power  of  enacting  a  weekly  holy  day. 
The  State  has  it,  say  others.  Every  man,  says  a  third  class,  is  in 
this  matter  a  law  to  himself.  The  advocates  of  a  Sabbath  ap 
pointed  by  the  Supreme  Ruler  for  all  time,  while  recognising,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  existence  and  perfection  of  the  Divine  law, 
acknowledge  also  the  authority  of  its  Author  as  exclusive,  admit 
ting  of  no  co-ordinate  rule,  and  leaving  no  legislative  power  in  the 
hands  of  creatures. 

The  civil  power  may  undertake  too  much,  and  burden  itself 
with  matters  which  would  be  better  left  to  individual  discretion 
and  private  arrangement.  And  yet  were  the  surveillance  perfect, 
there  would  be  reason  rather  for  satisfaction  than  for  complaint. 
It  is  because  private  .associations  and  individuals  know  best  how  to 
promote  their  own  interests,  and  are  in  this  way  larger  benefactors 
of  the  State,  that  a  redundancy  of  law  is  an  evil.  But  the  legis- 


488  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

lation  of  infinite  intelligence,  jnstice  and  goodness,  cannot  be  too 
comprehensive  and  supreme. 

There  is  but  "one  Lawgiver,"  and  His  law  is  "exceeding 
broad."  In  instituting  the  ancient  worship,  everything,  down  to 
the  smallest  vessel  and  pin,  was  embraced  in  His  prescriptions. 
How  frequently  are  we  told  that  this  and  that  part  of  the  work 
in  the  construction  of  the  tabernacle,  and  this  and  the  other  par 
ticular  in  its  connected  service,  were  done  "  as  the  Lord  com 
manded  Moses  ! "  And  the  temple  as  well  as  the  tabernacle  was 
built  and  furnished  according  to  a  Divine  pattern.  Nor,  in 
settling  the  affairs  of  the  Christian  economy,  was  the  Head  of 
the  Church  less  mindful  of  His  prerogative,  or  of  the  good  of 
men.  "  Moses  was  faithful  in  all  his  house  as  a  servant,  but 
Christ  as  a  Son  over  His  own  house."  The  sole  Lawgiver  still 
rejects  from  the  rule  of  His  Church,  "the  commandments  of 
men."  The  apostles  enacted  no  laws,  instituted  no  ordinances. 
Their  business  was  to  "  teach  all  things  whatsoever  their  Master 
commanded  them."  They  disclaimed  "'dominion  over  the  faith" 
of  their  disciples.  And  their  instructions  have  been  deposited  in 
the  New  Testament  as  the  complement  of  Revelation,  that  volume 
which  is  not  to  be  altered,  and  by  which  all  the  teachings  of  in 
dividuals,  and  all  the  dogmas  of  councils  are  to  be  tried. 

It  is,  as  with  other  things,  so  with  the  appropriation  of  time. 
As  to  this  also  we  are  under  a  complete  and  exclusive  law.  He 
who  has  appointed  to  every  thing  its  time,  and  who  "  changeth 
the  times  and  the  seasons,"  has  ever  refused  to  give  this  "  glory  to 
another."  In  the  instance  even  of  ritual  observance,  Elijah  shall 
wait  for,  and  Gabriel  respect,  the  time  of  the  evening  sacrifice, 
and  the  man  "  who  made  Israel  to  sin"  is  held  forth  to  execra 
tion  for  "devising  of  his  own  heart"  the  day  of  a  religious  feast. 
It  is  an  antagonist  of  "  the  Most  High  and  of  His  saints,"  an 
anti-Christian  power,  that  is  predicted  as  "thinking  to  change  times 
and  laws,"  as,  in  other  words,  "  presuming  to  alter  the  appointed 
seasons  and  the  law."1  And  the  Lawgiver  is  as  "jealous"  as  ever 
of  His  prerogative  :  "  For  the  Son  of  man  is  Lord  even  of  the  Sab 
bath."  When  do  we  find  Him  surrendering  this  Divine  right,  and 
conveying  it  to  any  man  or  number  of  men  1  Among  His  last  words 

1  Wintle's  Version. 


THEORIP:S  TRIED.  489 

on  earth  were  :  "  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in 
earth."  When,  therefore,  the  Pope  ventured  to  substitute  "  festi 
vals"1  for  the  "Sabbath-day,"  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  and 
otherwise  to  claim  a  power  over  the  institution,  he  perpetrated  not 
the  least  of  the  enormities  of  that  usurped  authority  by  which  he 
conceives  himself  at  liberty  to  suspend,  alter,  or  abrogate  Divine 
laws,  and  serves  himself  heir  to  the  names  and  to  the  doom  of 
"the  opponent  of  the  Most  High,"  and  "the  man  of  sin." 
Closely  did  they  follow  in  his  track  who  devised,  proclaimed,  and 
patronized  "  The  Book  of  Sports."  And  to  plead,  as  Archbishop 
Whately  does,  for  the  right  of  the  Church,  and,  as  others  do,  for 
the  right  of  the  State,  to  institute  a  Sabbath,  are  surely  errors  of 
the  same  description,  and,  however  plausibly  presented,  infringe 
ments  as  real  of  His  prerogative,  who  is  Head  of  the  Church  and 
Lord  of  the  Sabbath. 

And  let  not  those  who  maintain  that  all  days  are  now  alike, 
and  nevertheless  observe  a  weekly  Sabbath  from  mere  considera 
tions  of  its  utility,  or  of  its  former  or  present  prevalence,  imagine 
that  their  views  escape  the  charge  of  interference  with  the  Divine 
prerogative.  These  views  tend  to  the  conclusions,  that  the  Deity 
has  abdicated  his  dominion  over  the  times  of  worship,  and  aban 
doned  men  in  that  matter  to  anarchy  and  confusion.  They  hold 
that  sacred  days  have  been  abrogated,  and  yet  they  keep  them, — 
in  other  words,  they  institute  an  ordinance,  and  make  a  law,  "  of 
their  own  hearts." 

Nor  can  the  theory  which  maintains  the  continued  obligation 
of  the  seventh  day  stand  the  test  of  the  principle  now  under  con 
sideration.  If  the  Sabbath  be  in  all  respects  simply  moral,  it 
must  also  be  to  that  extent  immutable.  That  the  appropriation 
of  a  seventh  day  to  rest  and  worship  is  moral,  positive,  and,  on 
earth,  unchangeable,  we  admit.  It  is  not  more  conceivable  that 
this  law  of  Creation  and  of  Sinai  could  be  repealed  in  the  pre 
sent  state  than  that  the  whole  economy  of  nature  could  be  sub 
verted.  It  is  as  impossible  that  the  consecration  of  one  day  in 
seven  to  sacred  service  should  be  set  aside  in  this  world  as  that 

1  Eicordati  di  Santificare  le  Feste— Remember  to  keep  holy  the  festivals.— Dottrina 
Cristiana,  etc.,  p.  24  (composed  by  Bellarmine,  by  order  of  Clement  vin.,  and  approved 
by  th«  Congregation  of  Reform). 


490  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

the  second  or  the  fifth  precept  should  be  obliterated  from  the 
Decalogue.  The  continued  demand  for  such  a  day,  at  once  by  the 
physical  wants  and  by  the  spiritual  necessities  of  man,  is  an  ad 
ditional  evidence  of  its  moral  character  and  of  its  permanence. 
But  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  not  only  refused  to  impose  the  ob 
servance  of  the  Jewish  "  sabbath-days"  on  His  Gentile  followers, 
but  after  His  resurrection  paid  no  respect  to  them  in  His  own 
practice,  met  with  His  disciples  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and 
was  imitated  in  His  regard  for  the  latter  by  all  the  Christian 
churches  of  whose  assemblies  for  worship  there  is  any  account. 
Circumstances,  as  we  have  already  seen,  are  mentioned,  showing 
that  arrangements  were  made  for  it  as  the  stated  and  understood 
day  of  such  meetings.  It  follows  that  there  was  something  in 
the  old  Sabbath  which  could  be  changed,  that  the  institution  ad 
mitted  of  transference  from  the  last  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  ; 
and  as  it  has  appeared  that  various  theorists  have  asserted  for 
human  beings  the  power  of  appointing  a  Sabbath,  it  is  now  as 
manifest,  that  there  are  others  who  refuse  to  accord  to  the  Divine 
Lawgiver  that  prerogative  of  "  changing  the  times  and  the  sea 
sons,"  which  He  has  challenged  for  Himself,  and  which  His  own 
proceedings,  and  the  practice  of  the  apostles  proved  Him  to  have 
exercised. 


THEOJJIES  TRIKD.  491 


CHAPTEK  IY. 

THEOEIES  TEIED  BY  THEIR  TENDENCIES  AND  RESULTS. 

REASON  itself  might  and  frequently  does  decide  on  such  ques 
tions  as  are  now  under  trial,  by  pronouncing  certain  opinions  to 
be  sound  or  the  opposite  according  to  their  manifest  operations 
and  effects.  The  character  of  the  Divine  government  as  revealed 
in  Scripture  leads  to  the  same  conclusions,  for  it  is  a  government 
of  truth  and  righteousness  which  by  its  constitution,  and  demands 
on  mankind,  proves  itself  favourable  to  whatever  is  just,  true,  and 
good,  and  hostile  to  "  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness."  In  like 
manner,  the  Word  of  God  expressly  declares  the  fruits  of  dogmas 
to  be  a  test  of  their  merits,  and  connects  the  evidence  for  the 
truth  of  its  predictions  respecting  the  ultimate  prevalence  of  Chris 
tianity  with  the  benign  influences  of  Christian  institutions,  and  the 
virtues  of  Christian  men.  Let  us  therefore  apply  this  test  of  good 
tendency  and  results  as  a  means  of  enabling  us  to  judge  between 
the  contending  pretensions  of  theories  on  the  subject  before  us. 

We  must  here  class  together  the  "  no  Sabbath"  and  the 
"  every-day  Sabbath"  opinions,  as,  how  different  soever  in  their 
professed  moral  objects,  they  are  agreed  in  their  antagonism  to  a 
periodical  holy  day.  For  illustrations  of  the  influence  of  the  for 
mer  creed,  we  refer  to  the  most  degraded  parts  of  the  heathen 
world,  to  the  worst  characters  of  European  society,  and  to  France 
after  she  had  discarded  her  weekly  Sabbath.  If  Scotsmen  or 
Englishmen,  who  are  favoured  in  temporal  things  beyond  all  other 
nations,  and  those  of  them  who  are  blessed  above  many  of  their  own 
countrymen,  long  to  be  reduced  to  the  condition  of  savages,  slaves, 
devils  incarnate  or  their  victims,  let  them  retire  from  a  country 
which  they  dishonour,  and  establish  a  Sabbathless  community,  but 
let  them  not  suppose  that  their  views  will  influence  any  one  whom 
reason  and  common  sense  have  not  forsaken.  And  as  it  is  a  fact, 


492  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

that  nothing  great  or  good  has  ever  sprung  up  in  a  land  entirely 
destitute  of  sacred  time,  so  it  is  equally  true  that  a  region  of  the 
earth  in  which  all  time  was  alike  holy  has  never  been  witnessed, 
a  fact,  which  is  itself  a  proof  that  neither  the  great  Ruler  nor  the 
mass  of  mankind  have  ever  approved  of  the  introduction  on  earth 
of  an  arrangement  which  is  adapted  only  for  the  constitution  and 
circumstances  of  the  inhabitants  of  heaven.  Some  approach  has 
indeed  been  made  to  it  in  the  manifold  holidays  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  ;  but  a  church  which  has  done  so  little  comparatively  for  the 
religion  or  for  any  interest  of  the  world  is  not  a  model  to  be 
copied  by  patriots  or  philanthropists.  And  looking  to  the  few 
who  have  at  any  time  embraced  the  theory,  we  shall  admit  that 
aiming  at  too  much  they  have  lost  all,  and  exposed  themselves  to 
the  charge  thus  caustically  expressed  : — 

"  Shrewd  men,  indeed,  these  new  reformers  are ! 
Each  week-day  is  a  Sabbath,  they  declare : 
A  Christian  theory  !  the  un-Christian  fact  is, 
Each  Sabbath  is  a  week-day  in  their  practice."1 

The  professed  believers  in  all  other  mistaken  theories  declare 
that  they  maintain  the  usefulness,  or  even  necessity  of  a  weekly 
day  of  rest.  We  must  reason  with  them  on  this  their  own  avowed 
principle  ;  and,  if  it  can  be  proved  that  they  cannot  hold  both  the 
principle  and  their  theories,  they  ought  to  renounce  the  latter,  and 
give  their  influence  to  an  institution  which  they  admit  to  be  salu 
tary  or  indispensable  to  the  good  of  mankind. 

The  class  of  theorists  who  have  entertained  the  doctrine  of  the 
perpetual  seventh-day  Sabbath  have  been  so  few,  and  so  sur 
rounded  by  the  influences  of  more  prevailing  sentiments,  as  to 
afford  but  limited  means  of  enabling  us  to  judge  respecting  the 
religious  and  moral  character  which  the  system  contributes  to  form, 
or  the  good  of  any  kind  which  it  tends  to  diffuse.  The  very  fact 
of  the  limited  extent  to  which  the  theory  has  prevailed  is  un 
favourably  significant,  and  fatal,  we  conceive,  to  its  claim  of  being 
the  Sabbath  of  God  or  the  Sabbath  for  man.  The  cause  of  truth, 
indeed,  has  sometimes  been  intrusted  to  a  few  hands,  as  when  the 
witnesses  for  true  religion  are  represented  as  being  only  two,  while 
the  world  wondered  after  the  Beast.  But  that  in  times  alike  of 

1  Washington  Irving. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  493 

prosperity  and  of  adversity,  of  a  reviving  and  declining  religion,  so 
few  holding  the  doctrine  in  question  should  be  found  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  is  surely  a  proof  that  it  is  possessed  of  little  vital 
power,  and  not  destined  to  regenerate  and  bless  the  world.  What, 
for  instance — as,  judging  from  the  limited  observance  of  the  last  day 
of  the  week,  we  may  be  permitted  to  ask — would  have  become  of 
the  Sabbath  itself,  the  instrument  of  so  much  good,  if  other  views 
of  it  had  not  prevailed  1  The  same  unanswerable  objection  applies 
to  the  dogma  which  would  convert  the  days  of  creation  into  mil 
lenary  cycles — and  confound,  to  borrow  an  expression  of  Bishop 
Horsley,  the  writing  of  a  history  with  the  composition  of  riddles. 

The  view  which  confines  the  ground  of  the  Sabbatic  institution 
to  apostolic  practice  and  appointment  virtually  sets  aside  a  day  of 
sacred  rest.  On  the  supposition  of  a  previously-enacted  and  still- 
existing  law  providing  for  such  a  day,  the  language  and  proceed 
ings  of  the  apostles  are  all  that  the  new  dispensation  required. 
But  they  are  not  complete  or  sufficient  as  an  independent  authority 
for  an  entirely  Christian  institute.  The  apostles,  in  their  mention 
of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  say  nothing  of  its  design  and  observ 
ance  beyond  those  of  public  worship,  and  contributions  of  our 
substance  to  the  poor  ;  nothing  of  further  rest  from  secular 
labour  ;  nothing,  in  short,  of  the  way  in  which  the  greater  part 
of  a  whole  day,  and  that  "  the  Lord's  day,"  is  to  be  spent. 
Whether,  then,  we  consider  the  divine  manner  of  clearly  defining 
the  purposes  and  duties  of  religious  ordinances,  or  the  uselessness 
of  any  law  that  is  indefinite  and  doubtful,  we  are  shut  up  to  the 
conclusion,  which  other  considerations  no  less  demand,  that  we 
must  seek  in  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  in  the  New — in  primi 
tive  institution  and  in  Sinaitic  legislation,  as  well  as  in  Apostolic 
instruction  and  example — for  the  obligations  and  characters  that 
complete  the  Christian  Sabbath.  It  is  well  for  the  institution 
and  for  mankind  that  few  of  the  best  friends  of  both  have  adopted 
a  theory  which  rejects  the  Divine  and  only  adequate  security  for 
a  periodical  day  of  rest  to  man  and  beast,  and  secularizes  all  but 
a  few  hours  in  the  week,  thus  frustrating  both  the  moral  and 
physical  ends  of  sacred  time,  and  exposing  its  tiny  spark  to  ex 
tinction  on  an  ocean  of  worldly  business,  pleasures,  and  cares. 

Those  who  call  in  question  the  primeval  origin  of  the  Sabbath 


494  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

are  chargeable  with  doing  an  injury  and  a  wrong  to  the  institu 
tion.  They  would  remove  one  of  its  main  pillars — the  evidence, 
afforded  by  its  appointment  at  so  early  a  period,  to  prove  its 
destination  for  the  race.  They  would  take  away  from  its  vener- 
ableness  ;  they  would  disprove,  if  they  could,  its  necessity.  Their 
theory  says,  "  The  patriarchs  lived  and  died  without  a  Sabbath, 
attaining  long  life  and  high  measures  of  moral  excellence  indepen 
dently  of  its  aid  ;  and  what  they  could  dispense  with  so  may  we." 
And  who  would  care  to  contend  for  a  Jewish  ceremony  which  the 
experience  of  the  patriarchs  has  proved  to  be  a  local  and  tem 
porary  expedient,  useless  to  men  in  general, — nay,  if  useless,  an 
encumbrance  and  an  evil  ? 

Certain  theorists,  by  grounding  the  institution  on  human 
authority,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  place  it  on  a  foundation  of  sand. 
The  conscience  is  not  reached.  The  law  must  vary  with  every 
latitude  and  every  reign.  Independence  and  caprice,  allowed 
exemption  from  the  immediate  control  of  a  Supreme  Being,  de 
clare  "  that  they  will  not  be  trammelled  where  the  Creator  has 
left  man  free."  The  love  of  pleasure  or  of  gain  says,  "  I  will  take 
such  a  law  into  my  own  hands,  and  spurn  enactments  which  stand 
in  the  way  of  my  interest  and  gratification."  Thus  made  supreme 
in  a  matter  in  which  the  feelings  are  opposed  to  restraint,  how 
can  it  be  conceived  that  man's  submission  to  Sabbatic  law  can  be 
either  hearty  or  lasting,  or  that  the  law  itself  can  stand  ? 

We  have  yet  to  compare,  in  respect  of  adaptations  and  effects, 
the  creed  on  which  the  Christian  Sabbath  is  founded  with  that  of 
not  a  few  who  would  improve  on  it.  The  latter  and  their  nos 
trums  may  be  thus  described.  There  are  men  who  seem  to  be 
deficient  in  the  capacity  of  knowing  when  it  is  well  with  them  in 
any  situation,  and  consequently  to  be  wanting  in  the  wisdom  that 
would  direct  them  to  "let  well  alone."  It  is  worse  still  when 
any  one  is  ignorant  of  his  highest  mercies,  "  the  things  that  be 
long  to  his  peace."  Those  who  quarrel  with  the  day  of  rest  com 
bine  both  kinds  of  folly.  Not  content  with  the  worry  of  six  days, 
they  must  prolong  it  into  the  seventh,  and,  grudging  the  pause 
and  respite  of  one  day  in  the  week,  they  will  not,  on  the  one  hand, 
avail  themselves  of  it  as  an  indispensable  means  of  preparation  for 
the  "  rest  that  remaineth  to  the  people  of  God  ;"  or  on  the  other, 


THEORIES  TRIED.  495 

take  the  full  use  of  its  facilities  for  mere  repose  of  mind  and  body, 
as  some  compensation  for  the  coming  long  future  when  they  can 
have  no  rest  day  or  night.  It  is  such  men,  we  believe,  who  are 
satisfied  neither  with  the  outer  nor  with  the  inner  peace  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  would  have  a  sacred  day  mutilated  or  abolished.  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that,  with  such  blindness  te>  their  own  weal, 
they  should  be  fully  aware  of  the  true  reason  for  their  wishes 
respecting  the  institution.  They  have,  however,  ventured  to  as 
sign  a  reason,  involving  a  fiction  as  great  as  ever  was  invented,  or 
attempted  to  be  palmed  on  human  credulity — the  notion  that  a 
carefully  observed  Sabbath  injures  health,  and  genders  and  fosters 
vice.  For  these  evils  they  propose  as  a  remedy  the  removal  of 
their  supposed  cause,  and  the  substitution  for  a  day  of  sacred  rest 
of  one  devoted,  in  part  at  least,  to  recreation  and  amusement,  or 
to  the  study  of  science  and  of  the  arts.  We  have  already  abun 
dantly  established  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  adaptations, 
blessings,  and  even  necessity  of  a  holy  Sabbath  ;  but  to  make  "  as 
surance  doubly  sure,"  let  us  confront  the  old  with  the  new  ex 
pedients,  and  show  that  the  latter  are  as  insufficient  as  they  are 
unnecessary  for  their  alleged  purpose. 

If  we  look,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  scheme  which  proposes 
an  entire  or  partial  holiday,  or  day  of  amusement  and  pleasure,  we 
shall  see  that  it  is  condemned  by  all  experience,  alike  by  that  of 
a  sacred  and  by  that  of  a  merry-making  day.  The  necessity  of  a 
weekly  day  of  rest  to  the  physical  welfare  of  men  is  admitted  even 
by  those  who  are  unfriendly  to  a  holy  Sabbath.  "  The  infidel," 
says  one,  "  can  have  no  interest  in  revoking  its  blessings,  or  ac 
celerating  its  ruin.  He  may  laugh  at  the  ravings  of  fanaticism, 
or  sneer  at  the  fears  and  reasoning  of  inflamed  zeal  ;  but  the  sub 
stantial  benefits  of  the  Sabbath  he  is  as  anxious  to  preserve  as 
any."1  "  There  is  no  one,"  observes  another,  "  who  denies  that 
a  day  of  repose  and  relaxation  from  labour  once  a  »week  is  for  the 
benefit  of  the  working  classes,  and  there  is  no  one  who  would  wish 
to  do  away  with  that  usage.  It  is  nearly  the  only  breathing-time 
in  a  life  of  toil  which  the  poor  man  enjoys."2  We  accept  these 
statements  as  in  so  far  a  testimony,  and,  coming  from  such  quarters, 
an  important  testimony,  in  favour  of  a  Sabbatical  institution.  But 

1  A  Voice  frvin  ill*  Worl-sJiop   p.  15.        "-  Speech  of  Janios  Ayto  m.  Esq.,  1847,  p.  4. 


496  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

when  we  are  told,  as  we  are  by  the  former  writer,  and  by  others, 
that  in  advancing  proofs  of  the  physical  advantages  of  the  institu 
tion  we  only  "  beat  the  winds,"  we  must  crave  liberty  to  dissent 
from  the  opinion,  and  to  say  that  such  a  task,  so  far  from  being 
bootless,  as  merely  establishing  a  dogma  generally  received  and 
plainly  true,  is  one  that  is  called  for,  just  because  it  is  fitted  to 
produce  the  convictions  which  the  quotations  now  given  express,  and 
to  lead  their  authors  and  others  to  the  further  knowledge  and  con 
clusions  on  the  subject  which  it  is  evident  they  have  not  yet  reached. 
Let  it  be  remarked,  that  certain  views  may  not  be  rejected,  and 
yet  not  be  sufficiently  influential  on  the  conduct,  and  that  it  is  on 
this  account  requisite  frequently  to  reproduce,  illustrate,  and  en 
force  them,  that  they  may  take  more  of  the  shape  of  living,  prac 
tical  principles  in  the  minds  of  those  by  whom  they  are  professedly 
held.  But  we  confidently  deny  the  allegation  of  a  universally 
existing  belief  as  to  the  utility  of  the  Sabbath,  viewed  even  simplj 
as  a  day  of  rest.  Who  does  not  know  that  many  voluntarily 
labour  on  that  day,  and  that  many  require  such  labour  from  their 
servants  ?  Is  it  possible  that  these  persons  are  convinced  of  the 
physical  necessity  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  ?  Who,  again,  does  not 
know  that  the  call  of  so  many  for  a  Sabbath  of  amusement  and 
pleasure,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  is  in  reality  the  demand  of 
such  a  mode  of  spending  its  hours  as  must  subject  multitudes  to 
continual  labour  and  its  fatal  results,  that  others  may  enjoy  rest 
and  indulgence  1  Do  those  men  sincerely  believe  that  a  Sabbath- 
day  is  desirable  as  a  season  of  respite  from  the  toils  of  life,  who 
plead  for  "  a  system,  which  providing  for  the  gain  of  some,  and 
the  recreation,  the  amusement,  and  the  vices  of  others,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  their  fellows,  has  a  direct  tendency  to  undermine  health, 
exhaust  the  strength,  and  shorten  the  lives  of  those  who  are  its 
victims  V l  On  the  supposition,  so  contrary  to  all  experience,  that 
no  vice  were  indulged,  it  is  an  unanswerable  objection  to  Sunday 
excursions  by  trains  and  otherwise,  and  to  all  public  amusements 
on  that  day,  that  the  health  of  thousands,  employed  in  affording 
the  means  of  pleasure  to  others,  is  necessarily  sacrificed.  The 
superiority  of  a  day  of  sacred  rest  to  that  which  some  would  put 

1  Petition  of  641  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  London  against  the  opening  of  tho 
Crystal  Palace  on  Subbith. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  497 

in  its  place  appears  in  this,  as  in  other  respects,  that  its  tendency, 
like  the  mission  of  its  Lord,  is  not  to  destroy  but  to  save  life. 
According  to  its  wise  and  benevolent  provisions,  families  may  have 
all  that  is  conducive  to  health  and  happiness  without  the  drawback 
of  slavery  and  pain  to  any  one,  and  hundreds  may  have  the  means 
of  public  instruction  and  enjoyment  at  the  cost  of  a  measure  of 
exertion  on  the  part  of  one  individual,  which,  judging  from  the 
longevity  of  his  class,  necessitates  no  bodily  harm.  There  is  another 
great  mistake  or  fallacy  in  the  language  employed  on  this  subject 
by  those  who  profess  to  be  satisfied  as  to  the  physical  necessity  of 
a  Sabbath,  which  they  would  nevertheless  alienate  from  what  they 
are  pleased  to  call  puritanical  practices.  They  speak  and  write  in 
seeming  ignorance  or  forgetfulness,  that  the  principal,  if  not  almost 
the  entire  evidence  in  favour  of  such  a  day  goes  to  prove  the  im 
portance  of  a  Christian  Sabbath,  while  we  have  no  evidence  of  the 
sanitary  benefit  of  a  day  consumed  in  idleness,  in  recreation,  or 
even  in  the  study  of  nature  or  science.  Whence  have  those  per 
sons  almost  any  idea  at  all  of  a  Sabbath  but  from  the  observance 
around  them  of  the  Sabbath  of  Christianity  1  Whence,  especially, 
have  they  much  proof  of  the  utility  of  such  a  day  but  from  facts 
connected  with  that  observance  1  Let  them  do  justice  to  tho 
truth,  and  own  that  they  have  derived  the  very  conception  of  a 
weekly  day  of  rest  from  Revelation,  or  from  its  friends,  and  that 
they  know  little  or  nothing  of  its  physical  advantages,  except  in 
so  far,  as  these  have  appeared  in  its  contrasted  honour  and  neglect 
as  a  religious  institute.  In  the  absence  of  evidence  that  a  weekly 
day  of  rest  is  capable  of  yielding  greater  or  even  equal  benefit  to 
health  by  being  wholly  or  partially  severed  from  religion,  they 
are  not  authorized  to  affirm,  as  some  confidently  do,  that  the 
separation  would  be  productive  of  any  such  effect.  They  are  stilJ 
less  warranted  to  employ  the  facts  which  demonstrate  its  benefi 
cent  influence  as  a  Christian  appointment,  for  the  purpose  of 
evincing  its  excellence  in  any  other  character.  Until  we  have 
some  assurance  that  a  community,  or  any  portion  of  it,  could  be 
persuaded  to  spend  a  seventh  day  in  harmless  amusement,  or  in 
listening  to  lectures  on  science  and  art,  with  the  result,  too,  of  a 
larger  accession  to  health  than  arises  from  a  religiously  employed 
Sabbath,  it  would,  simply  on  grounds  of  expediency,  be  extremely 

8  i 


498  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

foolish  to  part  with  a  present  real  for  a  future  imaginary  good. 
This  experiment  would  be  the  more  unwise  that  we  already  have 
enough  in  ascertained  principles  and  facts  to  enable  us  to  predict 
its  complete  failure.  The  continental  Sabbath  is  precisely  such 
an  institution  as  many  in  our  land  seem  amlitious  to  set  up. 
But  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  the  Sabbath  abroad  has  achieved 
more  for  the  physical  nature  of  Frenchmen  or  Germans  than  the 
Sabbath  at  home  has  done  for  that  of  Scotsmen  or  Englishmen. 
Let  Paris  under  its  first  Revolution  warn  us  of  the  health-consum 
ing  and  life-destroying  orgies  that  would  attend  the  worship  of 
Nature  and  Science,  as  surely  as  they  waited  on  the  rites  of  the 
Goddess  of  Reason.  Let  the  wasting  profligacy  which  followed 
the  republication  of  the  Book  of  Sports  tell  us  what  would  be  the 
effect  of  reviving  a  Sabbath  of  pleasure.  In  the  intemperance,  the 
jaded  appearance,  the  reluctant,  tardy  return  to  work,  of  Sunday 
pleasure  seekers,  we  have  already  specimens  of  the  wider-spread 
evil  which  would  ensue,  if  the  religious  occupations  of  the  day 
were  generally  exchanged  for  the  delights  of  the  rural  excursion 
or  the  excitements  of  the  tea-garden.  "  Physiologically  consi 
dered,"  to  employ  the  words  of  Dr.  Fane,  "  power  saved  is  power 
gained,  and  the  waste  of  power  from  every  kind  of  excitement 
defeats  the  purpose  of  the  day.  So  that  on  the  Sabbath  the 
labouring  man  is  expending  the  powers  of  his  body,  instead  of 
husbanding  them  for  the  following  week,  and  chiefly  if  he  be 
engaged  in  drinking,"1  Take  away  the  religion  of  the  Sabbath, 
and  you  remove  the  chief  if  not  the  only  barrier  in  such  a  country 
as  this  against  the  encroaching  covetousness  of  one  class  and  the 
perpetual  slavery  of  another — evils  of  which  the  least  enormity 
is,  that  they  prey  upon  the  flesh,  blood,  and  bones  of  their  victims. 
"If,"  says  the  Times,  "  the  sacred  character  of  the  day  be  once 
obscured,  there  would  not  remain  behind  any  influence  strong 
enough  to  keep  a  thrifty  tradesman  from  his  counter  for  twelve 
hours  together.  A  man  who  would  observe  the  day  as  a  Sabbath 
would  retrench  it  as  a  holiday,  and  thus  competition  and  imitation 
would  at  length  bring  all  to  the  common  level  of  universal  pro- 
faneness  and  continuous  toil."2  And  the  amplest  experience  will 

'  Report  on  tlte  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  (1832),  p.  11& 
*  Editorial  Article,  July  14,  1848. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  499 

be  found  to  confirm  the  following  statement  of  men  well  acquainted 
with  the  human  constitution  :  "  While  they  are  most  especially 
called  to  minister  to  the  physical  sufferings  of  their  fellow-crea 
tures,  your  petitioners  cannot  overlook  the  close  relation  subsist 
ing  between  moral  and  physical  disease,  or  entertain  the  hope  that 
any  plans  which  do  not  make  full  provision  for  their  spiritual  as 
well  as  their  physical  necessities  will  effect  any  great  or  permanent 
improvement  in  the  health  or  habits  of  the  labouring  population. '!] 
But,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  said  that  all  the  intellectual 
benefit  which  a  religious  Sabbath  is  supposed  to  yield  might  be 
attained  by  means  still  more  consonant  to  the  constitution  of  the 
human  mind,  and  more  effectual  for  its  elevation.  "  You  boast," 
it  is  affirmed,  "  of  the  power  of  your  day  of  preaching  and  prayer, 
but  is  there  not  the  alternative  of  a  Crystal  Palace,  or  of  lecture- 
rooms  supplied  with  facilities  for  the  study  of  science  and  the  arts, 
and  would  not  this  be  a  much  better  means  of  informing  and  in 
vigorating  the  intellect,  as  well  as  of  promoting  health,  than  the 
immuring,  dull,  and  deadening  engagements  of  a  day  devoted  to 
religion  ]"  We  might  satisfy  ourselves  by  referring  to  the  obser 
vations  already  made,  on  the  "  Intellectual  Adapations  of  the  Sab 
bath,"  as  a  sufficient  reply,  so  far  as  principles  are  concerned,  to 
these  questions.  If  the  views  there  advanced  be  just,  they  ought 
to  satisfy  the  propounders  of  a  weekly  day  of  literary  and  scientific 
instruction  as  a  substitute  for  a  religious  Sabbath,  that  such  a 
scheme  could  not  for  any  considerable  period  be  maintained  or 
even  come  into  general  observance,  for  want  of  some  adequate 
authority  to  impose  on  the  world  a  common  time  for  any  species 
of  secular  studies  ;  that  it  would  fail  of  adaptation  to  all  classes, 
since  it  would  afford  no  relief  from  customary  toil  to  at  least  two 
large  portions  of  society, — to  the  many  servants  whose  physical 
labour  would  be  required  for  the  carrying  out  of  its  designs,  and 
to  the  cultivators  of  science,  literature,  and  the  arts,  who  would 
be  without  the  change  of  thought  so  essential  to  the  refreshment 
and  renovation  of  their  powers,  and  to  their  energy  and  success  in 
the  education  of  their  fellow-men  >  and  that  its  topics  and  busi 
ness  wculd  exert  but  a  feeble  influence  over  the  public  mind  com 
pared  with  religion,  having  no  similar  response  in  the  human 

1  Petition  of  641  Physicals  and  Suifceona. 


£00  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

conscience,  and  no  text-book  like  the  Bible,  which,  never  yet 
either  falsified  or  improved  by  the  results  of  inquiry,  or  by  the 
progress  of  discovery,  has  remained  for  ages  down  to  this  hour 
the  most  instructive,  interesting,  and  powerful  of  all  books.  The 
allegation  of  dulness  as  attaching  to  a  day  spent  in  the  duties 
of  religion  has  been  disposed  of  in  a  former  part  of  this  work 
(pp.  222-227).  We  will  further  say  of  it  only,  that  it  could  be 
hazarded  by  no  man  who  had  not  coloured  the  day  and  its  ob 
servers  with  the  dark  shade  of  his  own  spirit.  But  the  questions 
admit  of  reply  from  the  testimony  of  experience,  and  if  we  exa 
mine  for  a  little  the  comparative  claims  of  the  proposed  expedient 
and  of  that  which  it  is  intended  to  displace,  we  shall  find  not  only 
that  the  former  is  utterly  inadequate  for  its  purpose,  but  that 
proof  has  been  accumulated  of  the  pre-eminent  adaptation  of  the 
latter  to  the  constitution  and  improvement  of  the  human  mind. 

Looking  then,  first,  at  the  practicability  of  the  measures  under 
consideration,  we  find  the  evidence  to  be  decisive  in  favour  of  a 
sacred  day.  It  is  an  important  circumstance  that  there  never  has 
been  an  instance  of  a  Sabbatic  institution  apart  from  some  kind 
of  religion.  This  has  not  been  owing  to  the  want  of  opportuni 
ties,  of  endeavours,  or  even  of  partially  successful  efforts  to  found 
such  an  institution.  In  this  country,  and  in  many  others,  no 
man  is  compelled  to  keep  a  sacred  Sabbath ;  any  one  may  not 
only  abstain  from  going  to  a  place  of  worship,  but  may  employ 
the  day  in  the  study  of  science,  either  individually  or  socially. 
Such  things  have  been  done.  The  French  converted  their  churches 
into  temples  of  so-called  Reason,  where  public  affairs  were  descanted 
on,  moral  orations  pronounced,  and  political  hymns  sung.  The 
Socinians  in  London  had  "several  debating  clubs  established 
among  them  in  the  metropolis  on  the  Lord's  day."1  There  have 
been  rejecters  of  Christianity  who  have  had  their  assemblies  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week  for  their  edification  in  unbelief.  And 
yet  the  supporters  of  these  and  similar  schemes,  with  the  idea 
and  all  the  details  of  the  working  of  a  Sabbath  before  their  eyes, 
with  the  convenience  of  a  da^  in  general  observance  on  which  to 
attempt  their  supposed  improvements,  with  the  influence  of  man's 
aversion  to  what  is  sacred  in  favour  of  their  designs,  and  with  all 

i  Works  of  Robert  If  all  (1839),  vol.  *.  p.  ISO 


THEORIES  TRIED.  501 

their  concessions,  moreover,  to  the  religious  convictions  and  cus 
toms  of  society,  have  never  been  able  to  secure  more  than  a  very 
partial  and  temporary  adoption  of  a  weekly  day  for  instruction, 
whether  in  infidelity  or  in  any  merely  secular  matter.  Avarice 
and  the  love  of  animal  pleasure  have  ever  proved  more  than  a 
match  for  such  devices.  It  is  religion  alone  that  has  provided  a 
Sabbath  suited  to  all  men,  established  it  against  the  opposition  of 
the  strongest  human  passions,  and  maintained  it  in  all  ages. 
From  the  earliest  period  of  authentic  history  to  the  present  time, 
the  world  has  never  wanted  its  seventh-day  festival.  Wherever 
Christianity  has  prevailed,  it  has  carried  its  Sabbath  along  with 
it.  And  we  have  only  to  examine  the  records  of  modern  missions 
to  be  convinced  how  admirably  adapted  the  institution  is  to  men 
in  every  clime  ;  how  speedily  and  effectually  it  displaces  the  old 
customs  when  its  religion  has  been  embraced,  and  how  firm  a 
lodgment  it  effects  in  the  consciences  and  affections  of  the  con 
verts.  On  the  score,  then,  of  practicability,  it  has  the  decided 
evidence  of  experience  in  its  favour,  while  all  such  evidence  pro 
nounces  the  proposed  substitute  to  be  a  hopeless  project. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  another  criterion  of  the  intellectual  adapta 
tion  of  a  seventh  day,  according  as  it  is  employed  in  religious 
services,  or  in  other  means  of  mental  improvement ;  we  mean 
power  or  efficiency,  and  let  us  see  what  facts  disclose  on  this 
point.  If  it  be  said  that  the  religious  institution  has  so  pre 
occupied  men's  minds  as  to  preclude  a  fair  trial  of  other  expedi 
ents  which  have  but  rarely  been  invested  with  a  formal  appoint 
ment,  we  reply,  that  considering  the  facilities  and  favourable 
feelings  for  a  change  already  mentioned,  we  can  see  nothing  in  all 
this  but  a  testimony  to  the  efficiency  of  a  sacred,  and  the  imbe 
cility  of  a  secular  Sabbath.  That  surely  which  is  too  feeble  to 
struggle  into  general  use,  or  to  maintain  its  ground,  promises  no 
good  should  it  by  any  possibility  be  brought  into  full  operation. 
That,  on  the  other  hand,  which,  with  the  whole  tide  of  human 
immorality  set  in  against  it,  has  nevertheless  prevailed  in  the 
world,  proclaims  thereby  its  power  to  reign.  But  it  is  not  true 
that  the  former  has  not  had  a  sufficient  trial.  It  was  the  subject 
of  experiment,  under  a  formal  appointment,  for  ten  years  in 
France,  the  result  of  which  was  that  it  had  to  take  refuge  in  reli- 

22* 


502  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

gion.  There  are  many  in  our  own  land  engaged  in  the  pursuit 
of  knowledge  who  never  keep  a  religious  holiday,  and  who  enjoy 
the  freedom  from  interruption  in  their  studies  which  such  a  day 
secures.  This  state  of  things  has  long  existed,  and  is  to  be  fou>  «1 
in  other  countries  as  well.  In  all  Popish  lands  the  Lord's  day  is, 
for  the  most  part,  free  to  be  applied  to  mental  exercises  or  to  any 
thing  else,  and  will  be  taken  advantage  of  for  the  former  purpose 
by  some  of  each  community.  Add  to  these  cases  that  of  the  far 
greater  proportion  of  mankind  who  have  been  without  the  re 
straints  of  a  sacred  day,  and  who  therefore  have  had  more  time 
for  making  acquisitions  in  learning.  It  appears,  therefore,  that 
the  proposed  and  other  methods  of  intellectual  discipline  which 
have  been  deemed  worthy  to  supplant  the  Christian  Sabbath  have 
been  sufficiently  tried  to  enable  us  to  judge  of  their  merits.  And 
we  are  willing  to  accept  the  history  of  the  latter,  circumscribed 
and  abated  though  its  proper  influence  has  been  by  the  keenest 
opposition,  as  furnishing  the  means  of  deciding  on  its  fitness  as 
an  instrument  of  mental  improvement.  To  that  history,  as  for 
merly  presented  in  a  summary  form,  we  add  only  the  comprehen 
sive  words  of  Jortin  :  "To  whom  are  we  indebted,"  asks  the 
learned  writer,  "  for  the  knowledge  of  antiquities,  sacred  and  secu 
lar,  for  everything  that  is  called  philology  or  polite  literature  1  To 
Christians.  To  whom  for  grammars  and  dictionaries  of  the  learned 
languages  ?  To  Christians.  To  whom  for  chronology,  and  the 
continuation  of  history  through  many  centuries  1  To  Christians. 
To  whom  for  rational  systems  of  morality  and  of  natural  religion  1 
To  Christians.  To  whom  for  improvements  in  natural  philosophy, 
and  for  the  application  of  these  discoveries  to  religious  purposes  ? 
To  Christians.  To  whom  for  metaphysical  researches  carried  as 
far  as  the  subject  will  permit?  To  Christians.  To  whom  for 
jurisprudence  and  political  knowledge,  and  for  settling  the  rights 
of  subjects,  both  civil  and  religious,  upon  a  proper  foundation  1 
To  Christians."1 

We  have  yet,  thirdly,  to  show  that  the  reason  alleged  for  mea 
sures  which  would  abridge  or  even  supplant  a  carefully  sanctified 
Sabbath  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  It  is  the  weekly  holy  day  as 
observed  in  this  country  that  is  affirmed  to  be  immoral  in  its  ten- 

1  Jortiu's  Sermon*,  vol.  vii.  pp.  373,  374 


THEORIES  TRIED.  5>03 

deney,  and  it  will  be  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  charge  if  we  can 
show  that  it  finds  a  thorough  refutation  in  certain  moral  contrasts 
furnished  by  our  country's  annals,  in  briefly  tracing  these  con 
trasts  we  shall  see  enough  to  justify  Foster's  eulogimn,  that  "  the 
Sabbath  is  a  remarkable  appointment  for  raising  the  general  tenor 
of  moral  existence,"  and  the  words  of  Blackstone  and  Pollok  :  "A 
corruption  of  morals  usually  follows  a  profanation  of  the  Sab 
bath;" 

"  Sure  sign,  whenever  seen, 
That  holiness  is  dying  in  a  land, 
The  Sabbath  was  profaned  and  set  at  nought." 

How  dissimilar  was  England  when  above  one  hundred  murders 
had  been  committed  in  the  kingdom  by  ecclesiastics,  of  whom  not 
one  had  been  punished  so  much  as  with  degradation,  the  punish 
ment  enjoined  by  the  canons,  to  England  in  the  time  of  Queen 
Elizabeth !  What  an  alteration  in  the  other  direction,  followed 
the  publication  and  republication  of  the  Book  of  Sports,  which 
opened  the  flood-gates  to  all  kinds  of  licentiousness  !  Mark  the 
improvement  which  was  the  result  of  a  change  of  measures. 
Never  were  the  claims  of  the  Lord's  day  more  ably  defended  and 
enforced  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  or  more  zealously  complied 
with  in  the  practice  of  the  people,  than  during  the  times  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  of  the  preceding  struggles.  "You  might 
walk  the  streets  [of  London]  on  the  evening  of  the  Lord's  day," 
as  Neal  observes  of  "the  people  in  the  Parliament  quarters," 
"  without  seeing  an  idle  person  or  hearing  anything  but  the  voice 
of  prayer  or  praise  from  churches  and  private  houses."1  He 
further  says  that  there  were  no  gaming-houses  nor  houses  of 
pleasure,  nor  was  there  any  profane  swearing  nor  any  kind  of 
debauchery  to  be  seen  or  heard  in  the  streets.2  Kef  erring  to  the 
period  when  the  monarchy  had  been  overturned,  he  remarks :  "  In 
the  midst  of  all  these  disorders  there  was  a  very  great  appearance 
of  sobriety  both  in  city  and  country ;  the  indefatigable  pains  of 
the  Presbyterian  ministers  in  catechising,  instructing,  and  visit 
ing  their  parishioners,  can  never  be  sufficiently  commended.  The 
whole  nation  was  civilized,  and  considerably  improved  in  sound 
knowledge."3  Compare  with  these  years  some  later  periods 

i  ffisto-y  of  the  Puritans,  ii.  591.  8  TWA  594.  »  Ibid.  iv.  18. 


504  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

when  the  Sabbath  law  was  not  so  obeyed  :  the  time,  for  example, 
of  Charles  n.,  when  "  religion,  which  had  been  the  fashion 
of  the  late  times,  was  universally  discountenanced,  those  who  ob 
served  the  Sabbath,  scrupled  profane  swearing,  etc.,  being  branded 
as  fanatics,  and  the  exorbitant  vices  of  the  Court  spread  over  the 
whole  nation,  and  occasioned  so  general  a  licentiousness  as  to 
require  the  king's  notice  of  it  in  addressing  the  Parliament;"1 
and  the  days  of  Walpole,  when  corruption  was  so  notorious  as  to 
elicit  from  that  statesman  the  saying,  that  "  every  man  had  hia 
price  ;"  and  when  London  itself  was  infected  with  banditti,  so  that 
many  gentlemen  were  robbed  and  even  murdered  on  the  public 
streets  in  open  day.  Let  us  observe  the  opposite  effect  of  a  con 
tinued  respect  for  the  institution  among  the  Puritans  wrho  were 
driven  from  their  country,  as  well  as  among  their  descendants. 
The  Pilgrim  Fathers  took  refuge  in  Holland.  But,  as  Mather,  in 
his  Magnolia,  says,  "  they  saw  that,  whatever  banks  the  Dutch 
had  against  the  inroads  of  the  sea,  they  had  not  sufficient  ones 
against  a  flood  of  manifold  profaneness  ;  they  could  not  with  ten 
years'  endeavour  bring  their  neighbours  particularly  to  any  suitable 
observation  of  the  Lord's  day,  without  which  they  knew  that  all 
practical  religion  must  wither  miserably."2  So  they  resolved  to 
leave  Holland.  What  character  they  maintained  while  in  that 
country  may  be  known  from  the  testimony  of  the  magistrates  of 
Leyden,  who,  while  reproving  the  Walloons,  say,  "  These  English 
have  lived  now  ten  years  among  us,  and  yet  we  never  had 
any  accusation  against  any  of  them,  whereas  your  quarrels 
are  continual."3  After  this  noble  race  had  been  settled  for 
one  hundred  years  in  America,  they  are  found  persevering  in 
a  dutiful  respect  to  the  Sabbath  and  its  sacred  services,  and 
in  a  course  of  practical  morality  becoming  their  principles  and 
profession  of  religion.  The  same  alternations  of  good  and  evil, 
arising  from  the  same  causes  as  are  presented  in  the  history 
of  England,  appear  in  that  of  Scotland.  The  interval  between 
her  first  and  second  Reformations  was  marked  by  a  very  efficient 
system  of  Christian  instruction,  and  by  the  "  very  healthful  moral 
condition  of  her  people,"4  the  efforts  of  the  bishops  who  were 

*  History  of  the  Puritans,  iv.  354,  355.  «  Mather's  Magnolia,  p.  5. 

»  Mather's  M  ignalia,  p.  6.  *  Chalmers's  Works,  voL  xvi.  p.  288. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  505 

introduced  by  the  Court,  in  propagating  their  views  of  religion, 
and  in  attempting  to  bring  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  into 
conformity  to  that  encouraged  by  royal  proclamation,  serving  to 
stimulate  the  zeal  and  exertions  of  the  faithful  ministers  of  the 
land.  The  period,  again,  from  the  second  Reformation  to  the 
Restoration  of  the  Monarchy  was  even  more  distinguished  by  the 
religious  and  moral  elevation  of  the  country.  Kirkton's  account 
of  its  concluding  years  is  well  known.  We  give  a  portion  of  it  : 
"  In  the  interval  betwixt  the  two  kings,  religion  advanced  the 
greatest  step  it  had  made  for  many  years.  Now,  the  ministry 
was  notably  purified,  the  magistracy  was  altered,  and  the  people 
strangely  refined.  No  scandalous  person  could  live,  no  scandal 
could  be  concealed  in  all  Scotland,  so  strict  a  correspondence 
there  was  betwixt  ministers  and  congregations.  At  the  king's 
return  every  parish  had  a  minister,  every  village  had  a  school, 
every  family  almost  had  a  Bible,  yea,  in  most  of  the  country  all 
the  children  of  age  could  read  the  Scriptures,  and  were  provided 
of  Bibles,  either  by  the  parents  or  their  ministers.  I  have  lived 
many  years  in  a  parish  where  I  never  heard  an  oath,  and  you 
might  have  ridden  many  miles  before  you  heard  any.  Also,  you 
could  not  for  a  great  part  of  the  country,  have  lodged  in  a  family 
where  the  Lord  was  not  worshipped  by  reading,  singing,  and 
public  prayer.  Nobody  complained  more  of  our  Church  govern 
ment  than  our  taverners,  whose  ordinary  lamentation  was,  their 
trade  was  broke,  people  were  become  so  sober."1  In  this  state 
of  things  Charles  n.  ascended  the  throne.  This  event  was  soon 
followed  by  an  attempt  to  enforce  Episcopacy  upon  the  Scottish 
nation,  which  gave  rise  to  a  war  of  about  twenty-eight  years' 
duration.  The  act  for  the  establishment  of  parochial  schools  was 
repealed.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  ministers  were  ejected  from 
their  parishes,  and  forbidden  to  preach  even  in  the  fields,  or  to 
approach  within  twenty  miles  of  their  former  charges.  In  their 
place  were  appointed  men  whom  Burnet  describes  as  "  mean  and 
despicable  in  all  respects,  the  worst  preachers  he  ever  heard, 
ignorant  to  a  reproach,  and  many  of  them  openly  vicious."2 
With  these  men,  and  their  persecuting,  profligate,  and  profane 

1  Kirkton's  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  48,  49,  64,  66. 
a  History  of  his  own  Times  (Edit,  of  1850),  p.  103. 


506  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

supporters,  compare  the  Covenanters,  whose  attachment  to  the 
weekly  holy  day,  though,  alas  !  to  them  no  day  of  security  and 
rest,  we  have  already  seen  :  "  It  is  ascertained,"  as  Principal  Lee 
deposed  before  the  House  of  Commons'  Committee  on  the  Sab 
bath  in  1832,  "that  in  the  time  of  the  Covenanters,  which  I 
believe  to  have  been  a  period  of  great  religious  light,  and  of  great 
strictness  and  purity  of  morals,  there  was  scarcely  an  individual 
in  the  lowlands  of  Scotland  who  could  not  read,  and  who  was 
not  in  the  habit  of  reading  the  Bible  ;  and  scarcely  a  family  in 
which  the  worship  of  God  was  not  regularly  performed,  both  by 
celebrating  the  praises  of  God,  reading  the  Scriptures  and  prayer."1 
The  Revolution,  indeed,  put  an  end  to  persecution,  rescinded  the 
acts  establishing  a  form  of  religion  opposed  to  the  wishes  of  the 
people,  and  led  to  the  restoration  of  the  parochial  schools.  But 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  evils  which  had  been  inflicted  by  a 
tyrannical  government,  a  brutal  soldiery,  and  a  clergy  sunk  in 
sloth,  ignorance,  and  vice,  should  not  cease  with  their  causes, 
particularly  as  hundreds  of  these  clergy  were  retained  in  their 
charges.  So  late,  accordingly,  as  1898,  ten  years  after  the 
Revolution,  there  were,  according  to  Fletcher  of  Saltoun,  200,000 
people  who  subsisted  by  begging  from  door  to  door,  and  the  hall 
of  whom  were  vagabonds,  living  without  any  regard  or  submis 
sion  either  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  or  even  those  of  God  and 
nature  ;  robbing,  murdering,  and  at  country  weddings,  markets, 
burials,  and  on  other  public  occasions,  to  be  seen,  both  men  and 
women,  perpetually  drunk,  cursing,  blaspheming,  and  righting 
together.  But  how  improved  the  times  when  Scotland  had  be 
gun  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  political  oppression  and  of 
anti-Sabbatic  influences,  and  to  feel  the  reforming  power  of  its 
religious  faith  and  institutions  !  "  After  the  Revolution,  I  find 
from  the  accounts  of  the  schools  in  towns  and  lowland  parishes, 
some  of  which  I  have  in  my  possession,  that  in  the  periodical 
examinations  which  took  place,  there  are  regular  returns  of  the 
numbers  of  the  children  who  were  reading  different  books,  some 
of  them  the  New  Testament,  but  the  greater  part  reading  the 
entire  Bible  ;  and  that  was  the  period  certainly  when  the  Sab 
bath  was  most  strictly  observed,  and  when,  according  to  all  the 

*  If'imtea  of  Evidence,  p.  ill. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  507 

accounts  that  can  be  best  relied  upon,  the  morals  of  the  people 
were  likewise  the  most  healthy."1  Defoe  writes  thus  of  the 
state  of  Scottish  morality  in  1717  :  "The  people  are  restrained 
in  the  ordinary  practice  of  common  immoralities,  such  as  swear 
ing,  drunkenness,  slander,  fornication,  and  the  like.  As  to  theft, 
murder,  and  other  capital  crimes,  they  come  under  the  cognizance 
of  the  civil  magistrates,  as  in  other  countries  ;  but,  in  those 
things  which  the  Church  has  power  to  punish,  the  people  being 
constantly  and  impartially  prosecuted,  they  are  thereby  the  more 
restrained,  kept  sober,  and  under  government,  and  you  may  pass 
through  twenty  towns  in  Scotland  without  seeing  any  broil  or 
hearing  one  oath  in  the  streets  ;  whereas,  if  a  blind  man  was  to 
come  from  there  into  England,  he  shall  know  the  first  town  he 
sets  his  foot  in  within  the  English  border,  by  hearing  the  name 
of  God  blasphemed  and  profanely  used  even  by  the  little  children 
on  the  street."2  The  same  contrasts  may  be  seen  at  other  times 
and  even  in  our  own  day.  We  shall  be  told,  indeed,  of  particular 
vices  which  have  brought  a  stigma  upon  the  best  Sabbath-keep 
ing  country  in  the  world,  and  on  some  of  its  most  God-fearing 
cities.  No  little  exaggeration,  it  has  been  proved,  has  been  em 
ployed  on  the  subject — a  natural  resource  of  those  who  envy  a 
high  reputation,  and  hate  a  holy  institution.  Without  enlarging 
on  this  part  of  the  question,  for  which  we  cannot  afford  space, 
let  a  few  facts  relative  to  the  morals  of  the  cities  referred  to, 
and  of  a  country  parish,  at  different  periods,  serve  to  show  that 
it  is  the  neglect,  not  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  that  ac 
counts  for  any  real  deterioration  in  the  character  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Creech,  well  known  in  his  day,  and  still  remembered  as 
an  author,  bookseller,  and  Lord  Provost  of  Edinburgh,  contri 
buted  to  the  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland  some  remarkable 
sketches,  which  were  afterwards  published  in  his  Fugitive  Pieces, 
of  the  modes  of  living,  trade,  manners,  etc.,  of  that  city,  as  these 
appeared  in  the  years  1763,  1783,  1793.  The  following  are  a 
few  specimens  : — "In  1763  it  was  fashionable  to  go  to  church, 
and  people  were  interested  about  religion.  Sunday  was  strictly 
observed  by  all  ranks  as  a  day  of  devotion,  and  it  was  disgrace- 

1  Pri^vipal  Lee— Minutes  of  Evidence,  p.  271. 
«  Jfe».o*r»  of  (he  Church  of  Scotland  (1844),  p.  353. 


508  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

ful  to  be  seen  on  the  streets  during  the  time  of  public  worship. 
Families  attended  church  with  their  children  and  servants,  and 
family  worship  \--as  frequent.  The  collections  at  the  church 
doors  for  the  poor  amounted  yearly  to  £1500  and  upwards.  In 
1783  attendance  on  church  was  greatly  neglected,  and  particu 
larly  by  the  men.  Sunday  was  by  many  made  a  day  of  relaxa 
tion,  and  young  people  were  allowed  to  stroll  about  at  all  hours. 
Families  thought  it  ungenteel  to  take  their  domestics  to  church 
with  them.  The  streets  were  far  from  being  void  of  people  in 
the  time  of  public  worship,  and,  in  the  evenings,  were  frequently 
loose  and  riotous,  particularly  owing  to  bands  of  apprentice  boys 
and  young  lads.  Family  worship  was  almost  disused.  The 
collections  at  the  church  doors  for  the  poor  had  fallen  to  £1000. 
In  no  respect  were  the  manners  of  1763  and  1783  more  re 
markable  than  in  the  decency,  dignity,  and  delicacy  of  the  one 
period,  compared  with  the  looseness,  dissipation,  and  licentious 
ness  of  the  other.  Many  people  ceased  to  blush  at  what  would 
formerly  have  been  reckoned  a  crime. 

"In  1763,  masters  took  charge  of  their  apprentices,  and  kept 
them  under  their  eye  in  their  own  houses.  In  1783,  few  masters 
would  receive  apprentices  to  stay  in  their  houses,  and  yet  from 
them  an  important  part  of  succeeding  society  is  to  be  formed.  If 
they  attended  their  hours  of  business,  masters  took  no  further 
charge.  The  rest  of  their  time  might  be  passed  (as  too  frequently 
happens)  in  vice  and  debauchery,  hence  they  become  idle,  insolent, 
and  dishonest.  In  1791,  the  practice  had  become  still  more  pre 
valent.  Reformation  of  manners  must  begin  in  families  to  be 
general  or  effectual. 

"In  1763,  the  clergy  visited,  catechised,  and  instructed  the 
families  within  their  respective  parishes,  in  the  principles  of 
morality,  Christianity,  and  the  relative  duties  of  life.  In  1783, 
visiting  and  catechising  were  disused  (except  by  very  few),  and 
since  continue  to  be  so.  Nor,  perhaps,  would  the  clergy  now  be 
received  with  welcome  on  such  an  occasion.  If  people  do  not 
choose  to  go  to  church,  they  may  remain  as  ignorant  as 
Hottentots,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  be  as  little  known  as 
obsolete  Acts  of  Parliament.  Religion  is  the  only  tie  that  can 
restrain,  in  any  degree,  the  licentiousness  either  of  the  rich  or  of 


THEORIES  TRIED.  509 

the  lower  ranks  ;  when  that  is  lost,   ferocity  of  manners  and 
every  breach  of  morality  may  be  expected. 

'  Hoc  fonte  derivata,  clades 
In  patriara  popul unique  fluxit.' 

"In  1763,  house-breaking  and  robbery  were  extremely  rare. 
Many  people  thought  it  unnecessary  to  lock  their  doors  at  night. 
In  1783,  1784,  1785,  1786,  and  1787,  house-breaking,  theft, 
and  robbery  were  astonishingly  frequent,  and  many  of  these  crimes 
were  committed  by  boys,  whose  age  prevented  them  from  being 
objects  of  capital  punishment.  In  no  respect  was  the  sobriety 
and  decorum  of  the  lower  ranks  in  1763  more  remarkable  than 
by  contrasting  them  with  the  riot  and  licentiousness  of  1783, 
particularly  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  The  king's  birthday,  and 
the  last  night  of  the  year,  were,  in  1783,  devoted  to  drunken 
ness,  folly,  and  riot,  which  in  1763  were  attended  with  peace 
and  harmony. 

"  In  1 7  63,  young  ladies  (even  by  themselves)  might  have  walked 
through  the  streets  of  the  city  in  perfect  security,  at  any  hour.  JS"o 
person  would  have  interrupted  or  spoken  to  them.  In  1 7  8  3,  the  mis 
tresses  of  boarding-schools  found  it  necessary  to  advertise,  that  their 
young  ladies  were  not  permitted  to  go  abroad  without  proper  atten 
dants.  In  1 7  9 1 ,  boys,  from  bad  example  at  home,  and  worse  abroad, 
had  become  forward  and  insolent.  They  early  frequented  taverns, 
and  were  soon  initiated  in  folly  and  vice,  without  any  religious 
principle  to  restrain  them.  It  has  been  an  error  of  twenty  years, 
to  precipitate  the  education  of  boys,  and  make  them  too  soon  men."1 

u  In  1763,  the  question  respecting  the  morality  of  stage-plays 
was  much  agitated.  By  those  who  attended  the  theatre  even 
without  scruple,  Saturday  night  was  thought  the  most  improper 
in  the  week  for  going  to  the  play.  In  1783,  the  morality  of 
stage-plays,  or  their  effects  on  society  were  not  thought  of.  The 
most  crowded  houses  were  always  on  Saturday  night.  The  cus 
tom  of  taking  a  box  for  the  Saturday  night  through  the  season, 
was  much  practised  by  boarding  mistresses,  so  that  there  could  be 
no  choice  of  the  play,  but  the  young  ladies  could  only  take  what 
was  set  before  them  by  the  manager.  The  galleries  never  failed  to 

1  Edinburgh  Fugitive  Pieces,  pp.  100-112     - 


510  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

applaud  what  they  formerly  would  have  hissed,  as  improper  in 
sentiment  or  decorum.1 

"  In  1763,  hairdressers  were  few,  and  hardly  permitted  to  dress 
hair  on  Sundays  ;  and  many  of  them  voluntarily  declined  it.  In 
1783,  hairdressers  were  more  than  tripled  in  number  ;  and  their 
busiest  day  was  Sunday.  In  1763,  the  revenue  arising  from  the 
distillery  in  Scotland  amounted  to  £4739,  18s.  lOd. — in  1783, 
to  £192,000."2 

In  the  same  work  there  is  an  account  of  a  country  parish  as 
it  was  in  the  years  1763  and  1783.  We  give  an  extract.  "In 
1763,  all  persons  attended  divine  worship  on  Sunday.  There 
were  only  four  Seceders  in  the  parish.  Sunday  was  regularly  and 
religiously  observed.  In  1783,  there  is  such  a  disregard  of  pub 
lic  worship  and  ordinances,  that  few  attend  divine  worship  with 
that  attention  which  was  formerly  given.  Ignorance  prevails,  al 
though  privileged  with  excellent  instructions  in  public  sermons,  in 
examination,  and  in  visiting  from  house  to  house  by  the  pastor. 
When  the  form  of  religion  is  disregarded,  surely  the  power  of  it 
is  near  dissolution.  In  1763,  few  in  this  parish  were  guilty  of 
the  breach  of  the  third  commandment.  The  name  of  God  was 
reverenced  and  held  sacred.  In  1783,  the  third  commandment 
seems  to  be  almost  forgotten,  and  swearing  abounds.  I  may  say 
the  same  of  all  the  rest  of  the  ten,  as-  to  public  practice.  The 
decay  of  religion  and  growth  of  vice,  in  this  parish,  is  very  re 
markable  within  these  twenty  years."3 

Let  us  now  take  the  case  of  Glasgow,  where,  after  allowing  for 
over-statement,  it  is  admitted  that  a  rapidly  accumulating  popula 
tion,  including  vast  hordes  of  immigrants  from  various  parts  of 
the  world,  are  in  many  instances  regardless  of  the  laws  of  sobriety. 
There  was  a  time,  however,  when  our  western  capital,  and  Scot 
land  at  large,  were  eminent  not  only  for  temperance,  but  for  gene 
ral  moral  excellence.  An  Englishman,  who  sojourned  in  Glasgow 
in  1703,  testifies  that  "all  the  while  he  was  there  he  never  saw 
any  drunk,  nor  heard  any  swear,  and  in  all  the  inns  of  the  road 
to  that  part  of  Scotland  they  had  family  worship  performed."4 
Another  Englishman,  Defoe,  as  we  have  seen,  bears  a  remarkable 

i  Edinburgh  Fugitive  Pieces,  p.  113.          2  Ibid.  pp.  T8,  79.          3  7^4.  p.  142 
<  Works  of  Matthew  Henry  (1853),  vol.  1.  p.  685. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  511 

attestation  to  Scottish  morality  in  1717.  It  will  surely  not  be 
pretended  that  the  Sabbath  is  better  observed  or  better  enforced 
in  1862  than  it  was  in  1703  and  1717 — years  comprehended  in 
the  period  which,  according  to  Principal  Lee,  was  the  halcyon 
time  of  Scotland's  weekly  holy  day.  The  reverse  is  the  fact. 
What  then  has  the  Sabbath  to  do  with  the  immorality  of  Glas 
gow  ?  The  commercial  metropolis  of  Scotland  "  flourished"  once 
"  by  the  preaching  of  the  Word,"  but  she  has  deteriorated  in  our 
day  because  so  many  refuse  to  hear  the  Word.  Vice  has  kept 
pace,  not  with  the  observance,  but  with  the  neglect  of  the  Lord's 
day.  But  there  is  another  contrast  which  must  not  be  forgotten 
in  this  argument — that  between  the  distinguished  excellence  of  the 
many  who  honour  the  day,  and  the  moral  and  physical  degrada 
tion  of  the  too  numerous  class  who  despise  it.  Intemperance  and 
profaneness  are  both  cause  and  effect.  Sabbath -breakers  and 
drunkards  are  usually  one  and  the  same  class  of  men  ;  while  it  is 
true  everywhere  that  the  men  who  most  respect  the  institution  are 
not  only  the  most  temperate  members  of  society,  but  the  most  moral 
in  all  respects  in  their  conduct,  and  almost  the  only  persons  who 
do  anything  in  their  localities  for  promoting  sobriety  and  every 
virtue  among  their  neighbours.  It  is  among  those  that  devoutly 
regard  the  sacred  day  in  our  large  cities  that  we  find  the  in 
dividuals  who  dive  into  the  darkest,  filthiest,  and  most  dangerous 
haunts  of  wickedness,  with  the  view  of  reclaiming  the  inhabitants 
from  ignorance,  wretchedness,  and  crime,  or  who,  while  most  of 
others  care  not  for  the  neglected  and  profligate  except  to  scowl 
upon  them  as  they  cross  their  path,  patiently  labour  in  the  self- 
denied  and  arduous  work  of  instructing  the  young  that  they  may 
rescue  them  from  ruin,  and  guide  them  in  the  way  of  purity  and 
happiness.  It  is  from  among  them,  too,  that  those  go  forth  who 
brave  the  hazards,  or  suffer  the  privations  of  a  residence  in  unpro- 
pitious  climes  and  among  savage  tribes,  solely  for  the  spiritual 
good  of  their  fellow-creatures.  What  scheme,  indeed,  for  en 
lightening  the  ignorant,  reforming  the  immoral,  relieving  poverty, 
abating  disease,  and  comforting  sorrow,  has  not  among  its  princi 
pal  patrons,  and  most  active  auxiliaries,  the  very  men  who  arc 
charged  as  demoralizing  their  fellow-citizens  for  no  other  reason 
than  their  fidelity  to  the  Divine  and  benignant  law  of  the  Sab- 


512  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

bath,  and  so  charged  by  the  persons  who  owe  it  to  the  Sabbath- 
keeping  and  other  excellences  of  the  objects  of  their  abuse  that 
they  are  preserved  and  in  peace  amidst  the  elements  of  destruc 
tion.  Is  it  possible  that  a  law  which  produces  such  fruits  of 
mercy  and  kindness  can  be  a  bad  law  1  The  imputation  of 
hypocrisy  to  men  who  are  the  friends  of  such  a  law,  and  bright 
illustrations  of  its  moral  excellence,  is  itself  a  confirmation  of  our 
views,  for  certainly,  if  those  who  prefer  such  a  charge  had  enjoyed 
the  mental  discipline  of  the  Sabbath,  or  had  imbibed  its  spirit, 
they  could  not  have  been  so  ignorant  of  language  and  character, 
so  wanting  in  courtesy  and  candour,  or  so  destitute  of  prudence 
and  self-respect,  as  to  apply  to  the  most  upright  and  useful  members 
of  society  a  term  so  notoriously,  wickedly,  and  stupidly  inapposite. 
But  we  feel  that  we  have  said  more  than  enough  of  these  accu 
sations  and  their  fabricators — and  we  conclude  the  chapter  with  a 
passage  relating  to  Sweden,  which  not  only  adds  to  the  proof  of 
the  fallacy  of  the  views  that  we  have  been  combating ;  but  gives 
a  striking  warning  against  the  slightest  countenance  to  "  doing 
evil  that  good  may  come  :"  "  We  have  frequently  of  late  been  told 
by  a  certain  class  of  philanthropists,"  says  the  Rev.  James  Lums- 
den,  "  that  our  Scottish  habits  of  Sabbath  observance  are  the 
main  cause  of  the  intemperance  of  our  land,  and  that  the  true  and 
effectual  method  of  promoting  sobriety  is  to  give  facilities  and  en 
couragement  to  our  hard-working  artisans,  to  escape  from  their 
homes  by  railway  and  steam -boat  on  Sunday  afternoons  and  enjoy 
the  healthful  atmosphere  and  instructive  landscapes  of  the  country. 
It  is  well  to  inquire  what  success  this  experiment  of  employing 
Satan  <  to  cast  out  Satan,'  has  had  in  a  country  where  it  has 
been  carried  on  for  a  period  of  satisfactory  length,  and  in  circum 
stances  peculiarly  favourable,  in  a  climate  very  similar  to  our  own, 
among  a  people  of  the  same  race,  and  free  from  the  disturbing 
element  of  the  Sabbatarian  denunciations  of  the  pulpit  and  the 
press.  And  what  has  been  the  effect  of  this  holiday  Sabbath  upon 
the  sobriety  of  the  nation  ]  Why,  that  by  the  confession  of  the 
Swedes  themselves,  their  nation  is  the  most  intemperate  in  Europe  ;T 
that  in  a  country  where  manufacturers  have  not  drawn  a  promis- 

1  As  a  proof  of  this,  the  recent  Parliament  has  increased  the  duty  on  the  manufac 
ture  of  ardent  spirits  two-and -thirty  fold. 


THEORIES  TRIED. 

«uous  population  into  over-grown  villages  and  crowded  towns, 
where  incentives  to  vice,  arising  from  high  wages,  rapid  prosperity, 
and  commercial  bustle  and  over-working,  are  absent,  where  the 
people  are  almost  as  thinly  spread  as  in  cur  Highlands,  the  rate 
of  consumption  of  ardent  spirits  is  higher  than  in  this  country  ; 
and  that  a  region,  where  primitive  purity  as  well  as  primitive  quiet 
might  be  supposed  to  have  found  a  refuge,  is  pervaded  by  the  in 
temperance  of  our  neglected  lanes  and  luxurious  cities.''1 

1  Sweden  ;  iti  Religious  State  and  Prospects,  1856,  ppt  12-14 


THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THEOKIES  AND  AKGUMENTS  TRIED  BY  THE  DOCTRINE 
AND  LAW  OF  REVELATION. 

WHEN  it  has  been  already  proved,  on  the  one  hand,  by  the 
amplest  evidence  of  Reason,  Revelation,  and  History,  that  the 
Sabbath,  according  to  one  of  its  theories,  is  of  Divine  original  and 
authority,  and  an  indispensable  blessing  to  mankind,  and,  on  the 
other,  that  rival  theories  and  schemes,  as  tested  by  the  principles 
of  the  Divine  Government,  and  by  experience,  are  destitute  of 
worth,  power,  and  benefit,  it  may  seem  superfluous  to  prosecute 
the  contest.  But  our  opponents  endeavour  to  find  in  Scripture 
support  for  opinions  which  have  failed  to  gain  the  suffrages  of 
the  greatest  and  best  of  men,  or  to  supply  any  satisfying  creden 
tials  of  their  success.  To  Scripture  they  appeal,  and  to  Scripture  the 
very  tower  of  our  strength,  it  can  be  no  disadvantage  for  us  to  go. 

But  the  most  conflicting  doctrines  and  practices  have  been  held 
to  be  scriptural — and  it  is  possible  for  persons  of  any  party  to 
come  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  because  they  are  proud,  to  be  sent 
empty  away.  If  we  would  derive  instruction  and  guidance  from 
that  Word,  we  must  understand  its  meaning,  and  for  that  purpose 
follow  the  rules  according  to  which  it  demands  to  be  interpreted, 
and  which  commend  themselves  to  the  reason  and  common  sense 
of  mankind.  Let  us,  therefore,  enunciate  some  of  these  Scrip 
tural,  rational,  and  common-sense  rules,  and  apply  each  rule  as  we 
proceed  for  enabling  us  to  decide  on  the  claims  of  various  theories 
and  arguments,  which  have  been  put  forth  on  our  subject.  We 
do  not  profess  to  dictate  to  others,  but  we  cannot,  in  this  part  of 
fche  volume,  argue  with  those  who  appeal  to  Revelation,  if  they 


THEORIES  TRIED.  515 

nevertheless  reject  its  authoritative  prescription  of  the  manner  in 
which  its  meaning  is  to  be  ascertained. 

First  Rule. — It  is  necessary  that  we  recognise  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  as  alone  constituting  the  Word  of  God.  No 
writing,  besides  those  in  the  Protestant  canon,  and  no  oral  tradi 
tion,  have  any  claim  to  be  received  as  parts  of  Divine  revelation. 
^Vhatever,  therefore,  Rome  advances  from  tradition  to  justify  her 
assumed  right  to  change  the  day  of  the  Sabbath,  or  to  appoint 
holy  days  of  her  own,  has  to  us  nothing  of  the  character  of 
"  proofs  of  holy  writ." 

Second  Rule. — We  must  receive  the  Word  of  God,  thus  defined 
and  complete  in  its  parts,  as  a  Revelation  divinely  perfect  in  its 
whole  character.  It  is  true  of  the  Old  Testament  as  of  the  New, 
that  it  is  "  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  foj 
doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  instruction  in  righteous 
ness  ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  throughly  furnished 
unto  all  good  works."1  To  neglect  either  division  of  the  Bible, 
or  to  magnify  it  at  the  expense  of  the  other,  would  betray  so 
utter  a  misconception  of  the  whole  book,  as  must  preclude  the 
discovery  of  truth  on  every  one  of  its  great  subjects.  Let  this 
treatment  be  shown  to  a  volume  of  human  production,  and 
the  injustice  no  less  than  the  folly  of  such  procedure  would  be 
seen  and  condemned  by  all.  But  in  deciding  with  respect  to 
the  Sabbath  and  other  matters,  there  are  those  who  are  chargeable 
with  this  partiality,  so  directly  in  opposition  to  the  demands  of 
Scripture  and  of  reason,  and  who,  therefore,  must  fail  of  arriving 
at  the  knowledge  of  the  Divine  mind  and  will.  These  persons 
conceive  that  the  selection  of  a  particular  people  to  be  the  objects 
of  Divine  favour,  and  the  depositaries  of  the  Divine  oracles,  is  a 
circumstance  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do,  further  than  as 
a  matter  of  curiosity  or  of  historical  interest.  How  many  regard 
the  people  of  Israel  as  if  they  had  been  the  inhabitants  of  another 
planet,  and  their  system  of  religion  as  if  it  had  almost  nothing  in 
common  with  the  Christian!  How  many  look  upon  the  Old 
Testament  as  an  obsolete  part  of  Divine  revelation,  which  it  is 
unnecessary  to  read  for  instruction  of  life  and  manners — whose 
Psalms  are  not  to  be  sung — whose  principles  apply  not  to  us — 

i  2  Tim.  iii.  1C,  17. 


616  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

whose  worthies  are  no  models — whose  spirit  is  unchristian  !  No 
thing  could  be  more  remote  from  the  truth — nothing  more  daringly 
impious  if  it  were  not  so  vastly  ignorant.  Judaism  was  a  Divine, 
wise,  holy,  good,  sanctifying,  saving  system  of  religion — substan 
tially  one  with  the  Christian.  It  was  a  local  and  stationary,  not 
like  Christianity  a  moving,  circulating  light,  but  it  was  the  means 
of  preserving  religion  in  the  world,  and  it  steadily  bore  testimony 
to  the  existence  of  the  one  living  and  true  God,  the  God  of  mercy 
and  salvation,  while  its  privileges  were  open  to  all  Gentiles  who 
abandoned  idolatry,  and  acceded  to  the  profession  of  the  true 
faith.  Considered  even  as  to  their  transitory  peculiarities,  the 
Jews  were  appointed  to  serve  great  ends  with  respect  both  to  the 
surrounding  world  and  to  future  ages.  But,  more  than  this,  the 
Jews  were  men  who,  in  common  with  others,  stood  in  need  of  a 
Saviour,  and  of  a  law  to  guide  them  as  rational  and  immortal 
beings.  To  them,  accordingly,  a  Saviour  was  made  known  by 
typical  representations  and  the  preaching  of  the  prophets — to  them 
a  moral  law  was  given.  There  are,  doubtless,  matters  in  the  Old 
Testament  that  are  not  a  rule  for  us,  but  so  are  there  in  the  New. 
There  are  many  things,  in  both  that  directly  concern  all,  and  there 
are  many  things  of  this  universal  application  in  each  that  are  not 
in  the  other.  That  we  may  know  the  whole  of  our  faith  and 
duty,  we  must  repair  to  both,  and  along  with  other  parts  of 
doctrine  and  practice  search  for  the  true  character  and  obligations 
of  a  weekly  rest  in  the  earlier  as  well  as  in  the  later  revelation. 
We  have  as  much  to  do  with,  what  Genesis  testifies  respecting  the 
Sabbath  as  we  have  to  do  with  what  it  declares  concerning  the 
institution  and  law  of  marriage.  What  was  moral  in  Judaism  is 
as  truly  binding  upon  us  as  it  was  obligatory  upon  the  Jews. 
This  rule  of  interpreting  Scripture,  therefore,  while  it  sanctions 
the  perpetual  obligation  of  a  seventh  day's  rest  and  worship,  sets 
aside  the  notion  that  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  in  Paradise, 
and  its  promulgation  at  Sinai,  had  no  respect  to  mankind  in 
general,  or  if  they  had  respect  to  us,  that  it  was  only  by  way  of 
an  analogy  which  directed  but  did  not  bind. 

The  perfection  of  Revelation  has  other  bearings  on  our  subject. 
It  teaches  inquirers  that,  as  its  thoughts  and  reasonings  have 
come  forth  from  infinite  wisdom,  and  as  its  very  words  are  "  the 


THEORIES  TRIED.  617 

words  of  the  Lord,  which  are  pure  words,  as  silver  tried  in  a  fur- 
nace  of  earth,  purified  seven  times,"  they  must  be  reverently  exa 
mined,  not  wrested,  not  instructed  by  the  reader,  but  listened  to, 
that  he  may  receive  whatever  instruction  and  impression  they  are 
designed  to  impart.  If  we  would  not  defeat  the  great  end  of  lan 
guage,  which  is  the  transmission  of  thought,  and  if  we  would  not 
dishonour  a  Divine  composition,  which,  as  in  everything  else,  so  in 
adaptedness  to  its  design  of  conveying  salutary  and  indispensable 
information  to  "  the  common  people,"  and  to  the  poor  as  well  as 
to  the  learned  and  the  rich,  must  transcend  the  literature  of 
earth,  we  ought  to  be  persuaded  that  holy  men,  speaking  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  could  not  utter  unintelligible 
words,  or  express  one  thing  when  they  meant  another.  And  yet 
how  confidently  do  some  who  give  evidence  that  they  have  not 
attentively  considered  what  they  profess  to  have  read,  pronounce 
on  this  and  that  passage  of  Scripture,  and  how  deliberately  do 
others  assert  a  particular  view  of  a  text  to  be  just,  when  they 
ought  to  know  that  they  are  forcing  it  into  the  service  of  a  favour 
ite  theory !  One  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  the  bold 
freedom  with  which  certain  writers  have  treated  the  sacred  text, 
is  furnished  in  the  attempt  to  set  aside  the  idea  of  a  primitive 
Sabbath,  by  the  notion  that  the  mention  of  it  in  Genesis  ante 
dates  the  institution  by  thousands  of  years.  Let  us  again  present 
the  beautifully  simple  and  clear  words  of  the  record  : — "  Thus  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished,  and  all  the  host  of  them. 
And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which  he  had  made  ; 
and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had 
made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it ;  be 
cause  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all  his  work  which  God 
created  and  made."1 

It  might  be  presumed  that  no  one  could  come  to  the  perusal  of 
this  earliest  notice  of  the  Sabbath,  with  the  view  of  transferring 
the  meaning  of  the  words  to  his  mind,  rather  than  of  imparting 
his  own  previous  impressions  to  the  words,  without  learning  that 
the  consecration  and  observance  of  the  seventh  day  were  immedi 
ate  consequences  of  the  Divine  rest.  So  plain  a  matter  is  this  to 
all  who  read  only  for  instruction,  that  one  would  feel  as  if  an 


Gen.  ii.  1-3. 
oo 


THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

apology  were  needed  for  the  apparent  childishness  of  elevating 
into  a  formal  proposition  so  obvious  a  truism.  But  certain  writers 
have  so  insulted  the  understandings  of  mankind,  and  so  trifled  with 
the  sacred  page,  as  to  affirm  that  a  space  of  2500  years  inter 
vened  between  the  day  of  rest,  and  the  actual  appointment  of  the 
institution  by  which  it  was  to  be  commemorated,  the  order  of 
time  being  departed  from  for  the  sake  of  the  connexion  of  subject ; 
and  have  on  this  mere  assertion,  so  gratuitous  and  wild,  built 
theories  and  systems  for  guiding  the  faith  and  conduct  of  the 
world  in  some  of  the  most  important  duties  and  concerns  of  men. 
The  view  which  the  words  as  clearly  indicate  as  language  ever  ex 
pressed  thought  or  fact,  and  which  has  commended  itself  to  the 
common  sense  of  the  generality  of  readers,  is  to  the  effect  that  the 
seventh  day  on  which  God  rested,  was  the  identical  day  which  he 
blessed  and  sanctified,  its  transactions  being  as  immediately  con 
secutive  to  those  of  the  sixth  day  as  these  were  to  the  proceedings 
of  the  fifth.  If  the  Creator  performed  the  works  of  the  six  days 
on  these  days,  He  must  have  rested,  sanctified,  and  blessed  the 
seventh  day  on  the  seventh  day.  If  the  acts  of  the  seventh  day 
were  not  done  on  the  seventh  day,  neither  were  the  acts  of  the 
six  days  done  on  the  six  days.  In  other  words,  there  was  neither 
creation  nor  Sabbath  till  the  children  of  Israel  had  encamped  in 
the  wilderness  of  Sin  !  What  is  the  conclusion  to  which  the  theory 
in  question  would  shut  us  up  ?  It  is,  that  a  sacred  writer  has 
expressed  himself  in  such  terms  as  necessarily  to  lead  us  into  error, 
from  which  there  is  no  escape  but  into  the  domain  of  absurdity. 
How  low  those  conceptions  of  the  character  of  holy  writ,  which 
could  inspire  the  proleptic  dream,  or  how  forlorn  the  hopes  of  a 
cause  which  has  driven  its  friends  to  an  expedient  so  foolish  as 
well  as  so  allied  to  the  irreverent  and  profane  ! 

Let  us  offer  a  second  example  of  the  forced  and  unnatural  con 
struction  which  has  been  perpetrated  on  the  narrative  of  creation. 
We  refer  to  the  interpretation  which  makes  the  six  days  of  the 
Creator's  working  denote  periods  of  long  duration.  The  good 
sense  of  its  most  ingenious  defender,  Faber,  led  him  ultimately  to 
discard  an  opinion,  which,  however  unintentionally  on  the  part  of 
its  supporters,  is  in  reality  a  libel  on  the  simplest  and  most  per 
fect  style  of  historical  writing.  It  is  true  that  the  term  "  <l^y" 


THEORIES  TltlED.  5i9 

is  employed  in  Scripture  in  different  meanings,  some  of  which 
occur  within  the  compass  of  a  few  sentences  in  the  account  of  the 
creation,  but  in  none  of  the  cases  is  the  sense  at  all  obscure. 
"And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  the  darkness  he  called 
Night.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day." 
Each  of  the  days  of  creation  being  defined  to  include  the  light 
and  the  darkness  must  therefore  have  been  a  period  of  twenty-four 
hours,  the  time  on  which  the  earth  performs  one  revolution  upon 
its  axis.  The  seventh  day,  though  wanting  the  definition  given 
of  the  others,  yet  as  belonging  to  a  numbered  series  having  the 
same  common  name  of  day,  must,  as  nothing  is  said  to  the  con 
trary,  have  been  of  the  same  duration  as  its  predecessors.  And 
when  the  sacred  writer,  having  informed  us  that  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  were  finished  in  six  of  those  periods,  adds,  "  These  are 
the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth,  in  the  day  that 
the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens, "-where  the  word 
comprises  six  common  days,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  distinguish 
ing  "  day"  in  the  summary,  from  "  day"  in  the  details,  and  in 
perceiving  that  it  denotes  generally  a  time.  "  In  what  manner 
the  creation  was  conducted,"  says  Bishop  Horsley,  "is  a  question 
about  a  fact,  and, "like  all  questions  about  facts,  must  be  deter 
mined,  not  by  theory,  but  by  testimony  ;  and  if  no  testimony  were 
extant,  the  fact  must  remain  uncertain.  But  the  testimony  of  the 
sacred  historian  is  peremptory  and  explicit.  No  expressions  could 
be  found  in  any  language,  to  describe  a  gradual  progress  of  the 
work  of  six  successive  days,  and  the  completion  of  it  on  the  sixth, 
in  the  literal  and  common  sense  of  the  word  *  day,'  more  definite 
and  unequivocal  than  those  employed  by  Moses ;  and  they  who 
seek  or  admit  figurative  expositions  of  such  expressions  as  these, 
seem  to  be  not  sufficiently  aware,  that  it  is  one  thing  to  write  a 
history,  and  quite  another  to  compose  riddles.  The  expressions  in 
which  Moses  describes  the  days  of  the  creation,  literally  rendered, 
are  these  :  When  he  has  described  the  first  day's  work,  he  says — 
*  And  there  was  evening,  and  there  was  morning,  one  day ;'  when 
he  has  described  the  second  day's  work,  <  There  was  evening,  and 
there  was  morning,  a  second  day ;'  when  he  has  described  the 
third  day's  work,  « There  was  evening,  and  there  was  morning,  a 
third  day.'  Thus,  in  the  progress  of  his  narrative,  at  the  end  of 


THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

each  day's  work,  he  counts  up  the  days  which  had  passed  off  from 
the  beginning  of  the  business ;  and,  to  obviate  all  doubt  what 
portion  of  time  he  meant  to  denote  by  the  appellation  of  *  a  day,' 
he  describes  each  day  of  which  the  mention  occurs  as  consisting  of 
one  evening  and  one  morning,  or,  as  the  Hebrew  words  literally 
import,  of  the  decay  of  light  and  the  return  of  it.  By  what  de 
scription  could  the  word  *  day'  be  more  expressly  limited  to  its 
literal  and  common  meaning,  as  denoting  that  portion  of  time 
which  is  measured  and  consumed  by  the  earth's  revolution  on  her 
axis  3  That  this  revolution  was  performed  in  the  same  space  of 
time  in  the  beginning  of  the  world  as  now,  I  would  not  over  con 
fidently  affirm  ;  but  we  are  not  at  present  concerned  in  the  reso 
lution  of  that  question  :  a  day,  whatever  was  its  space,  was  still 
the  same  thing  in  nature — a  portion  of  time  measured  by  the  same 
motion,  divisible  into  the  same  seasons  as  morning  and  noon,  even 
ing  and  midnight,  and  making  the  like  part  of  longer  portions  of 
time  measured  by  other  motions.  The  day  was  itself  marked  by 
the  vicissitudes  of  darkness  and  light ;  and  so  many  times  re 
peated,  it  made  a  month,  and  so  many  times  more  a  year.  For 
six  such  days,  God  was  making  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  therein  is,  and  rested  on  the  seventh  day.  This  fact, 
clearly  established  by  the  sacred  writer's  testimony,  in  the  literal 
meaning  of  these  plain  words,  abundantly  evinces  the  perpetual 
importance  and  propriety  of  consecrating  one  day  in  seven  to  the 
public  worship  of  the  Creator."1  To  these  remarks  of  an  emi 
nent  scholar,  we  add  the  words  of  an  able  geologist  as  well  as 
theologian  : — "  We  have  then  six  days,  which  I  conceive  there  is 
good  reason  to  regard  as  six  natural  days,  six  rotations  of  our 
globe  upon  its  axis,  each  in  about  twenty-four  hours."2 

Third  Rule. — In  examining  particular  passages  of  Scripture, 
we  must  consider  them  in  connexion  both  with  their  context  and 
with  other  passages  relating  to  the  same  topics.  Such  a  process 
of  induction  is  due  even  to  the  humblest  of  writers.  And  it  is 
due  still  more  to  inspired  men,  whose  words,  purer  and  more 
precious  than  gold,  we  must  carefully  gather  and  generalize  if  we 
would  know  what  the  great  Teacher  would  have  us  believe  and 

1  Sermon  xxiii. 

s  Dr.  J.  Py«  Smith  in  "  Cours*  of  Lecture*  to  Young  Men"  (1838),  p.  18. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  521 

do.  We  must  compare  spiritual  things  with  spiritual.  Of  the 
extent  to  which  the  testimony  of  Revelation  on  the  subject  before 
us  has  been  misrepresented  by  the  disregard  of  this  undoubted 
canon,  the  following  are  illustrations  : — 

A  noted  case  occurs  in  the  attempt  to  set  aside  the  primaeval 
Sabbath  on  the  ground,  that  after  the  notice  in  the  second  chap 
ter  of  Genesis  no  further  mention  of  a  hallowed  day  is  made  by 
the  historian  till  he  has  proceeded  to  record  the  miraculous  pro 
vision  of  the  manna.  "  If  the  Sabbath  had  been  instituted  at  the 
time  of  the  creation,  as  the  words  in  Genesis  may  seem  at  first 
sight  to  import,  and  if  it  had  been  observed  all  along,  from  that 
time  to  the  departure  of  the  Jews  out  of  Egypt,  a  period  of  about 
two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ;  it  appears  unaccountable  that 
no  mention  of  it,  no  occasion  of  even  the  obscurest  allusion  to  it, 
should  occur,  either  in  the  general  history  of  the  world  before  the 
call  of  Abraham,  which  contains,  we  admit,  only  a  few  memoirs 
ofHts  early  ages,  and  those  extremely  abridged  ;  or,  which  is  more 
to  be  wondered  at,  in  that  of  the  lives  of  the  first  three  Jewish 
patriarchs,  which  in  many  parts  of  the  account,  is  sufficiently  cir 
cumstantial  and  domestic." x 

It  is  not  for  man  to  decide  on  the  manner  in  which  a  Divine 
Kevelation  should  be  made.  It  belongs  to  him  to  examine  the 
actual  revelation,  under  the  conviction  that  both  in  its  matter  and 
in  its  mode,  it  must  be  perfect.  Instead,  therefore,  of  indulging 
in  uncertain  speculations  on  such  a  circumstance  as  that  referred 
to,  and  we  must  say,  exaggerated,  by  Dr.  Paley,  we  ought  to  have 
recourse  to  the  light,  if  any,  that  has  been  shed  upon  it  by  other 
parts  of  Scripture.  If  we  would  do  justice  to  the  character  of 
Manasseh,  we  must  read  not  only  of  his  monstrous  wickedness,  as 
recorded  in  the  second  book  of  Kings,  but  of  his  penitence  and  re 
formation,  as  related  in  the  second  book  of  Chronicles.  It  would 
be  an  unwarranted  inference  from  the  biography  of  Solomon  if  we 
conceived  that  his  sun  had  gone  down  under  a  dark  cloud  of 
apostasy,  for,  turning  to  the  Ecclesiastes,  we  see  the  luminary  set 
ting  in  cloudless  and  mild  glory.  If  we  did  not  trace  the  sacred 
history  far  beyond  the  close  of  the  Pentateuch,  we  should  not  be 
aware  that  the  true  law  of  marriage,  which,  from  the  hardness  of 

*  Paley's  Workt,  18mo,  vol.  iv.  pp.  290,  2fil. 


522  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

Jewish  hearts,  had  been  for  four  thousand  years  in  abeyance,  was 
finally  re-asserted  in  its  original  purity  and  obligation. 

In  the  passage  which  we  have  cited,  the  eminent  author  has 
not  entirely  neglected  to  compare  one  part  of  Scripture  with  an 
other.  But  his  induction  is  both  faulty  and  incomplete. 

It  is  faulty.  He  has  examined  the  history  in  Genesis,  but  he 
has  inverted  the  universally  admitted  order  of  procedure  in  com 
paring  the  separate  parts,  having  employed  the  obscure  to  de 
fine  the  clear,  the  negative  to  illustrate  the  positive,  or  having, 
in  other  words,  instead  of  interpreting  the  subsequent  silence  of 
the  historian  by  his  simple  narrative  of  the  Creation,  interpreted 
the  narrative  by  a  silence,  his  construction  of  which  is  a  mere  con 
jecture.  If  the  terms  in  which  the  alleged  appointment  is  couched 
had  been  dark  and  doubtful,  the  omission  of  reference  to  it 
afterwards  might  be  an  element  in  determining  their  import,  but 
the  fact  of  the  appointment  has  been  put  on  record  in  the  clear 
and  indubitable  language  of  inspiration,  and  no  such  omission  can 
alter  a  fact,  which  must  stand  for  ever.  Had  the  author  of  Gene 
sis  never  more  mentioned  the  Sabbath,  although  this  circumstance 
could  not  have  annihilated  the  fact  of  the  appointment,  it  would 
have  afforded  a  plausible  ground  for  the  doubt  whether  the  evi 
dently  instituted  day  of  rest  and  worship  had  not  been  permitted 
to  expire.  But  the  silence  was  ultimately  broken,  faintly  by  the 
still  small  voice  of  the  descending  manna,  and  soon  after,  effec 
tually,  by  the  thunders  of  Sinai.  The  true  meaning  of  silence, 
therefore,  in  this  as  in  many  other  instances,  is  consent.  It  inti 
mates  that  nothing  had  transpired  from  which  it  could  justly  be 
inferred  that  the  conveyance  of  a  Sabbatic  boon  had  been  with 
drawn,  or  that  the  imposition  of  Sabbatic  obligations  had  been 
cancelled.  It  conveys  even  more  than  this,  and  emphatically,  as 
on  numerous  occasions,  implies  the  superfluousness  of  utterance. 

But  Dr.  Paley's  induction  is  also  incomplete.  Had  his  survey 
been  more  comprehensive,  and  had  he  thus  performed  a  simple  act 
of  justice  to  the  inspired  writers  and  to  truth,  he  would  have  found 
that  the  circumstance  made  use  of  by  him  to  abridge  the  pedigree, 
limit  the  extent,  and  weaken  the  authority,  of  a  confessedly  be 
nignant  institute,  which  every  friend  of  morals  and  humanity 
should  desire  to  see  surrounded  and  fortified  by  every  Divine  sane- 


THEORIES  TRIED.  523 

tion,  is  in  entire  agreement  with  the  history  of  other  great  enact 
ments  and  facts,  and  with  the  general  history  of  the  Sabbath 
itself. 

How  fares  it  with  various  institutions,  laws,  and  events  1  Of 
the  Fall  of  man  nothing  is  said  for  the  period  during  which  the 
Sabbath  receives  no  particular  notice.  That  momentous  event  is 
trace!  only  in  the  sins  and  miseries  of  the  race,  just  as  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  weekly  rest  is  seen  in  its  results — in  the  prevalent  re 
gard  to  the  septenary  number,  and  distribution  of  time,  and  in  the 
indications  of  social  religion,  with  its  priesthood,  tithes,  set  places 
and  seasons  of  worship ;  circumstances  which  were  the  natural 
sequences  of  the  Creator's  working  and  rest,  and  which  cannot  be 
accounted  for  but  on  the  supposition  of  that  prior  Divine  ex 
ample  and  arrangement.  Was  the  account  of  the  Fall  in  the 
beginning  of  Genesis  the  mere  intimation  of  a  destined  or  prospec 
tive  event,  as  it  is  alleged  the  account  of  the  Sabbath  was  ?  An 
affirmative  answer  would  be  as  reasonable  in  the  one  case  as  in 
the  other.  The  announcement  of  Redemption  was  indeed  a  pre 
diction,  but  in  harmony  with  other  facts  we  find  that  the  greatest 
of  all  events,  after  an  early  and  obscure  notice,  is  hardly  again 
mentioned  for  the  long  period  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  years. 
"  Although  particular  instances  of  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
by  the  old  patriarchs,  could  not  be  given  and  evinced,  yet  we 
ought  no  more  on  that  account  to  deny  that  they  did  observe 
it,  than  we  ought  to  deny  their  faith  in  the  promised  Seed, 
because  it  is  nowhere  expressly  recorded  in  the  story  of  their 
lives." J 

How  scanty  the  references  in  Genesis  to  the  creation  if  we  ex 
cept  the  first  and  second  chapters  !  The  observance  of  the  ordin 
ance  of  circumcision  is  never  once  alluded  to  between  the  times  of 
Joshua  and  John  the  Baptist.  There  is  no  notice  of  the  Passover 
from  the  date  of  Deuteronomy  xvi.  2,  to  the  days  of  Isaiah.  We 
have  already  adverted  to  the  long-continued  omission  of  any  asser 
tion  of  the  true  law  of  marriage.  The  Sabbatical  year  is  during 
a  space  of  nine  hundred  years  passed  over  in  silence.  And  not 
one  of  the  laws  of  the  Decalogue  except  the  sixth,  is  ever  formally 
announced  till  they  are  promulgated  from  Sinai,  although  we  have 

1  Owen  on  Sab.,  Exvre.  8<L,  geci.  3T. 


524  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

evidence  that  they  were  obligatory  and  known.  "  Excepting  Jacob's 
supplication  at  Bethel,  scarcely  a  single  allusion  to  prayer  is  to  be 
found  in  all  the  Pentateuch  ;  yet,  considering  the  eminent  piety 
of  the  worthies  recorded  in  it,  we  cannot  doubt  the  frequency 
of  their  devotional  exercises."1  How  "unaccountable"  on  Dr. 
Paley's  principle,  such  intervals  of  neglected  reference,  if  the  in 
stitutions  and  laws  were  really  appointed  and  observed,  and  if 
the  events  actually  took  place  !  But  notwithstanding  the  silence 
of  history,  we  know  that  these  were  all  veritable  transactions. 
And  such  also  must  have  been  the  early  institution  of  a  day  of 
sacred  rest. 

The  obscurity  which  for  a  time  rested  on  the  fortunes  of  the 
Sabbath  is,  moreover,  in  coincidence  with  its  own  general  history. 
In  the  account  of  the  time  from  Moses  to  Elisha,  when  the  Jewish 
ritual  and  laws  were  in  all  their  vigour,  and  the  record  of  events 
was  so  full,  "  no  mention  of"  the  institution,  "  no  occasion  of 
even  the  slightest  allusion  to  it,"  occurs.  And  yet,  as  Archdeacon 
Stopford  observes,  "  That  was  a  much  longer  period  of  history 
than  we  have  of  the  patriarchal  age."2  Dr.  Paley  is  satisfied 
with  the  evidence  in  the  New  Testament  for  a  Christian  Sabbath, 
but  that  evidence  does  not  consist  in  the  number  of  notices  or 
even  allusions  on  the  subject,  which  are  few  and  scattered.  It  is 
only,  indeed,  in  such  cases  as  the  introduction  of  new  economies, 
or  the  necessary  exposure  of  flagrant  perversions,  neglects,  or  dese 
crations  of  the  sacred  rest  by  the  professors  of  the  true  religion, 
that  the  mention  of  it  is  at  all  particular,  as  at  the  Creation,  the 
descent  of  the  manna,  the  giving  of  the  Law,  the  charges  preferred 
against  Israel  by  the  prophets,  the  predictions  by  the  same  per 
sons  of  the  nature  and  glory  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  and 
the  vindication  by  our  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  law  from  the  abuses 
of  Jewish  tradition  and  superstition.  Unless  there  are  such  de 
mands  for  specific  remark,  it  is  the  practice  of  the  inspired  writers 
to  maintain  an  entire  abstinence  on  the  subject,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  time  following  the  transactions  of  Sinai,  or  to  make  those  in 
cidental  references  to  it,  as  in  2  Kings  iv.  23,  which  the  relation 
of  other  facts  renders  necessary.  That  there  are  circumstances 
throughout  the  history  of  the  period  from  the  Creation  to  the 

»  Holden  on  the  Christian  Setbbath,  p.  8T.        2  S«rvpto.i*«.  Arcount  offhe  Sabbath,  p.  tt. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  525 

Exodus,  which  imply  the  appointment  of  a  Sabbath,  has  already 
been  adverted  to  ;  but  even  on  the  supposition  of  the  absence  of 
all  allusion  to  any  such  institution  during  that  long  period,  the 
method  of  Revelation,  comprehensively  viewed,  precludes  the  in 
ference  that  it  is  unnoticed,  either  because  it  had  been  abrogated, 
o:  because  it  had  never  been  appointed. 

The  argument,  therefore,  of  Dr.  Paley  is  disproved,  as  it  leads 
to  conclusions  which,  besides  being  contrary  to  "  the  seeming  im 
port,"  as  he  allows,  "of  the  words  in  Genesis,"  or,  as  ought 
rather  to  be  said,  to  their  only  possible  meaning,  are  discounte 
nanced  by  the  analogy  in  Scripture  of  cases  in  which  the  existence 
of  Sabbatic  and  other  institutions  and  laws  is  unquestionable,  and 
which  would,  in  fact,  be  as  fatal  to  their  authority  as  to  the  claims 
of  a  primaeval  day  of  rest.  The  argument,  in  other  words,  by 
proving  too  much,  is  utterly  useless  for  its  purpose,  and  forms 
another  evidence  of  the  weakness  of  the  cause  which  it  is  brought 
to  support. 

Rather  let  the  blank  in  the  history  of  the  Sabbath,  of  which 
so  much  has  been  made,  be  permitted  to  remain  "  unaccountable," 
than  be  explained  by  wresting  from  its  true  meaning  a  sacred 
narrative  of  surpassing  simplicity  and  clearness.  May  it  not, 
however,  be  accounted  for  in  a  legitimate  way  1  In  some  preced 
ing  remarks  it  has  been  traced  to  a  principle  or  rule  in  revelation, 
that  there  is  for  inspired  as  for  other  men,  "a  time  to  keep 
silence  and  a  time  to  speak."  But  this  rule  itself  has  reasons, 
which  it  discloses  in  the  instances  in  which  it  is  applied  to  regu 
late  both  the  omissions  and  notices  of  the  Sabbath.  In  circum 
stances  such  as  those  of  Cain,  who  went  out  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,  and  became  the  father  and  founder  of  a  godless  race,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  specify  the  disappearance  of  any  particular  in 
stitution,  when  all  have  been  swallowed  up  in  the  vortex  of  a 
general  irreligion.  It  is  different  with  a  people  like  the  Jews, 
who  were  banished  to  Babylon  on  account  partly  of  their  neglect 
of  Sabbatic  privileges,  and  of  whom  it  is  natural  to  record  both 
Jerusalem's  "remembrance,  in  the  days  of  her  affliction  and 
misery,  of  her  pleasant  things  in  the  days  of  old,"  as  contrasted 
with  her  Sabbaths  now  mocked,  her  sanctuary  violated,  and  her 
bread  taken  away,  and  Jeremiah's  lamentation  over  the  forgotten 

23* 


526  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

solemn  feasts  and  Sabbaths  in  Zion.  When,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  institution  is  generally  respected  by  a  pious  race,  like  the  de 
scendants  of  Seth,  it  would  be  as  superfluous  to  relate  the  fact  as 
it  would  be  formally  to  announce  the  continued  shining  of  the 
sun  ;  and  where  individuals  obey  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  in  their 
hearts  and  in  the  privacies  of  their  homes,  a  chariness  in  the  dis 
closure  of  such  matters  is  only  in  keeping  with  the  character  of 
good  men  who  are  not  forward  to  divulge  their  religious  experience, 
and  with  the  spirit,  too,  of  the  sacred  penmen,  who  usually  draw  a 
veil  over  such  scenes,  choosing,  except  in  a  particular  case,  as  of 
David,  who  must  sacrifice  in  the  Psalms  his  private  feelings  for  the 
public  good,  to  present  their  worthies  in  the  attitude  rather  of 
public  action  for  God  and  man  than  of  personal  devotion.  That 
the  sacred  writers  dwell  on  certain  matters  of  truth  and  conduct 
still  more  than  on  the  weekly  rest,  and  refer  to  the  observance  of 
it  and  of  other  institutions  as  of  no  avail  without  the  faith  and  love 
of  the  heart,  and  the  obedience  of  the  life,  are  clear  indications 
that  it  is  only  a  means  to  the  higher  end  of  salvation  and  moral  ex 
cellence.  And  yet  that  they  do  not  thereby  prejudice  the  institution 
itself  is  no  less  manifest.  Isaiah  and  our  Lord,  who  unsparingly 
denounce  the  substitution  of  ordinances  and  forms  for  faith  and 
holy  character,  are  careful  to  assert  the  authority  and  true  designs 
of  the  Sabbath.  When  the  spirit  of  the  world  encroaches  on  its 
limits  and  duties,  it  is  seen  that  piety  and  morals  are  endangered 
in  another  form,  and  it  is  now  the  time  for  an  Amos  to  sound  the 
alarm  to  those  who  long  for  the  cessation  of  its  brief  hours  that 
they  may  return  to  the  congenial  occupation  of  "  setting  forth 
wheat."  The  mention  of  it  in  the  first  and  last  books  of  Scripture, 
and  in  intervening  ones  of  various  dates,  the  particularity  with 
which  it  is  noticed  at  the  introduction  of  all  the  great  changes  in 
the  forms  of  religious  polity,  and  the  ancient  predictions  of  its 
prevalence  in  the  last  days,  all  proclaim  its  great  and  permanent 
importance.  And  when  we  add  that  it  is  frequently  referred  to 
incidentally,  and  that  its  names  occur  nearly  a  hundred  times  in  the 
Bible,  it  will  appear  that  it  has  not  been  without  a  proportionate 
share  of  attention  in  a  volume  which  is  not  large,  and  comprehends 
the  records  of  some  four  thousand  years,  with,  predictions  extend 
ing  to  thousands  more. 


THEORIES  TEIED,  527 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THEORIES  ANE  ARGUMENTS  TRIED  BY  THE  DOCTRINE 
AND  LAW  OF  REVELATION— continued. 

LET  us  now  apply  the  rule  which  Dr.  Paley  has  overlooked, 
and  we  shall  find  that  there  are  references  in  various  parts  of 
Scripture  to  a  primitive  Sabbath  which  not  only  confirm  the  com 
mon  view  of  the  narrative  in  Genesis  ii.  1-3,  but,  by  the  incidental 
way  in  which  they  are  made,  show  how  unnecessary  the  sacred 
writers  deemed  it  to  unfold  and  fortify  the  obvious  meaning  of 
the  historian. 

1.  One  of  the  references  is  to  be  found  in  the  account  of  the 
giving  of  the  manna.  The  children  of  Israel  had,  in  their  jour 
neying  from  Egypt,  reached  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  when  they 
charged  Moses  and  Aaron  with  bringing  them  into  so  inhospitable 
a  region  for  the  purpose  of  "  killing  them  with  hunger."  God 
informed  Moses  that  He  was  to  "  rain  bread  from  heaven,"  that 
the  people  should  gather  a  certain  rate  every  day,  that  on  the 
sixth  day  they  should  prepare  what  they  brought  in,  and  that  it 
should  be  twice  as  much  as  they  gathered  daily.  The  rulers 
having  reported  to  Moses  this  double  quantity  as  "  an  accomplished 
fact,"  he  replied,  "  This  is  that  which  the  Lord  hath  said,  To 
morrow  is  the  rest  of  the  holy  Sabbath  to  the  Lord."  It  is  im 
possible  that  this  last  expression  could  have  been  employed  if 
there  had  been  no  preceding  institution  of  the  Sabbath,  for  in 
this  case  there  would  have  been  no  idea  in  the  minds  of  the  rulers 
that  corresponded  with  the  word  "  Sabbath,"  and  no  fact  in  their 
memories  of  any  such  observance  as  is  intimated  in  the  phrase, 
"  the  rest  of  the  holy  Sabbath."  The  rulers,  however,  ask  no 
explanation,  and  Moses  gives  none  either  then  or  next  day,  when 
he  says,  "  To-day  is  a  Sabbath  unto  the  Lord."  The  ordinance. 


528  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

therefore,  existed  before  this  time,  and  its  name  must  have  been 
a  -household  word.  Let  us  now  look  at  the  arrangement  of  this 
and  the  preceding  history  as  it  appears  to  readers  in  all  subsequent 
time.  They  have  seen,  in  the  beginning  of  the  second  chapter  of 
Genesis,  a  notice  of  the  seventh  day  as  sanctified  and  blessed, 
and  also  the  next  express  mention  of  such  a  day  in  the  sixteenth 
chapter  of  Exodus.  They  have  found  the  latter  pointing  to  a 
pre-existent  institution,  and  have  turned  to  the  former  as  the 
only  account  of  such  a  thing  in  the  previous  history.  They  have 
identified  the  two.  If  this  be  a  mistake,  they  have  of  necessity 
fallen  into  it,  not  only  from  the  want  of  any  words  to  guard  them 
against  the  error,  but  from  the  manner  in  which  the  historian  has 
arranged  his  materials  and  expressed  his  ideas.  The  mistake, 
accordingly,  is  general,  only  a  few  learned  men,  who  had  a'  pur 
pose  to  serve,  having  escaped  it.  If  we  would  not  impute  to  a 
sacred  writer  literary  inability  or  intentional  deception,  we  have 
no  alternative  but  to  believe  that  the  Sabbath  was  instituted  at 
the  creation. 

2.  Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  transactions  in  the  wilderness  of 
Sin, — for  the  weekly  reckoning  of  time  had  not  been  lost  in  Egypt, 
— the  following  words  were  uttered  from  Sinai :   "  Remember  the 
Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy."     The  language  reduplicates  on  the 
earliest  notice  of  the  seventh  day's  rest,  and  in  two  distinct  forms 
establishes  the  antiquity  of  the  institution.     It  refers  to  a  pre 
viously  appointed  and  understood  holy  day,  the  only  account  of  the 
origin  and  object  of  which  is  given  in  Genesis  ii.  ;  and  it  deter 
mines  the  duty  of  observing  it  to  have  been  binding  from  the 
beginning,  for  it  is  not  said,  as  it  would  if  the  obligation  had  been 
new,  "  Wherefore  the  Lord  blesseth  the  Sabbath-day  and  hallo weth 
it,"  but  "  Wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath-day  and  hal 
lowed  it."     It  is  the  Sabbath-day,  therefore,  not  merely  as  ob 
served  and  confirmed  at  the  giving  of  the  manna,  and  mentioned 
abruptly,  and  without  explanation  or  reasons  in  Exodus  xvi.,  but 
as  originated  at  the  creation  and  described  in  Genesis,  that  is  com 
manded  to  be  kept  in  sacred  remembrance. 

3.  We  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion  respecting  the  original  of 
the  Sabbath  by  comparing  the  words  of  Genesis  with  a  passage 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.     The  writer  of  that  Epistle  hag 


THEORIES  TRIED.  529 

been  warning  the  Christian  converts  from  Judaism  against  the 
unbelief  which  excluded  their  fathers  from  the  rest  in  the  pro 
mised  land,  and  which  would  make  them  fall  short  of  another 
rest  promised  to  themselves.  This  could  not  be  the  rest  of 
Canaan,  which  was  now  past.  Nor  could  it,  he  says,  be  the  rest 
of  the  seventh  day,  because  this  rest  immediately  followed  the 
creation,  and  could  not  therefore  remain  to  be  entered  into :  "  For 
we  which  have  believed  do  enter  into  rest,  as  he  said,  As  I  have 
sworn  in  my  wrath,  if  they  shall  enter  into  my  rest  :  although 
the  works  were  finished  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  For 
he  spake  in  a  certain  place  of  the  seventh  day  on  this  wise,  And 
God  did  rest  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  works."  "  There  re- 
maineth  therefore  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God.  For  he  that  is 
entered  into  his  rest,  he  also  hath  ceased  from  his  own  works,  as 
God  did  from  his."  Without  recurring  to  the  service  otherwise 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  by  the  argument 
and  language  of  the  apostle  which  has  already  been  considered,  let 
it  suffice  in  this  place  to  say,  that  they  could  have  no  bearing  or 
meaning,  if  the  rest  of  the  seventh  day  had  not  subsisted  and  been 
enjoyed  from  the  beginning  of  time. 

4.  The  self-evident  sense  of  the  history  in  Gen.  ii.  1-3  is  con 
firmed  by  our  Lord,  when  he  says,  "  The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man." 

Let  another  of  those  expedients  to  which  the  opponents  of  a 
primaeval  Sabbath  have  been  driven  in  support  of  their  cause,  be 
exhibited  for  a  little  in  the  concentrated  light  of  Scripture.  Some 
have  maintained,  that  the  appropriation  by  Jehovah  of  the  seventh 
day  to  beneficent  and  sacred  use  contemplated  His  own  good  and 
His  own  observance,  not  a  benefit  to  be  enjoyed  and  a  service  to 
be  performed  by  man.  That  He  rested  on  the  first  seventh  day, 
and  was  refreshed  or  satisfied  with  His  work  of  creation,  and  that 
the  work  and  the  rest  were  designed  for  the  ultimate  and  highest 
end  of  His  own  glory,  we  readily  acknowledge.  But  the  direct 
purpose  of  the  whole  was  the  good  of  human  beings.  For  man 
was  all  this  done,  and  "  for  our  sakes,  no  doubt,  this  is  written." 
This  purpose  of  the  Divine  procedure  neither  excluded  the  benefit 
of  other  cre-atures  as  a  subordinate  design,  nor  interfered  with  the 
ultimate  end  of  the  Creator's  glory,  for  which  man  himself  and 

2  L 


030  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

all  other  beings  were  made,  but  was  rather  tributary  to  both. 
As  to  the  Sabbath,  the  connexion  of  the  words  in  the  narmtive  of 
the  creation  ought  to  leave  no  one  in  doubt  that  the  immediate 
design  of  its  appointment  was  the  happiness  of  mankind.  When 
we  consider  that  the  work  of  the  six  days  consisted  in  the  provid 
ing  of  a  residence  for  man,  with  everything  in  it  to  supply  his 
wants,  as  well  as  bright  luminaries  hung  over  it  to  give  him  light, 
to  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons,  for  days  and  for  years,  and  that 
to  man  was  given  dominion  over  every  living  thing  that  moved  on 
the  earth — a  grant  renewed  in  some  respects  to  Noah  and  his  sons, 
when,  as  the  representatives  of  the  race,  they  took  possession  of 
the  renewed  world — we  cannot  avoid  the  obvious  conclusion,  that 
the  proceedings  of  the  seventh  day  were  in  like  manner  designed 
for  the  direction  and  good  of  human  beings.  The  sanctifying  and 
the  blessing  of  the  day  must  have  respected  the  same  being,  a 
being  sentient  as  well  as  capable  of  having  a  time  set  apart  for 
him  ;  but  Jehovah  needed  not  a  day  for  His  own  holy  use,  and 
could  receive  no  blessing  from  such  a  day.  And  when  we  extend 
our  induction  beyond  the  words  in  Genesis — when  we  consider  the 
great  things  recorded  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  as  done  by  the 
Almighty  for  our  race — in  the  donation  to  them  of  the  earth — in 
the  co-operation  of  all  events  "  for  good  to  them  who  love"  Him — 
in  His  preference  before  all  temples,  before  that  even  of  the  whole 
material  universe,  of  "the  upright  heart  and  pure" — in  the  pre 
paration  for  every  one  who  faithfully  serves  Him  in  this  world, 
of  a  seat  with  Himself  on  the  throne  of  heaven — in  writing  to  us 
the  great  things  of  His  law — above  all,  in  His  manifesting  Him 
self  in  human  nature  for  man's  redemption, — it  appears  to  be  only 
like  Himself, — having  occupied  six  days  in  a  work  which  He 
could  have  performed  in  an  instant  of  time,  to  rest  on  the  seventh, 
as  an  example  of  order,  activity,  and  repose  to  us,  and  to  appoint 
a  day  of  special  blessing  and  sanctity  for  human  happiness  and 
guidance.  To  this  meaning  of  the  Creator's  conduct,  so  transparent 
in  itself,  and  so  entirely  in  harmony  with  all  His  other  procedure, 
the  Redeemer  has  set  His  seal  in  the  words  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment,  and  in  His  memorable  saying,  "  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man." 

Our  rule,  in  like  manner,  satisfactorily  disposes  of  certain  philo- 


THEOEIES  TRIED.  531 

logical  objections  which  are  advanced  against  the  authority  of  the 
Lord's  day.  The  friends  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  by  dwelling 
so  much  on  certain  idiomatic  expressions  in  the  original  text  of 
Scripture,  show  how  much  they  regard  their  explanations  of  these 
phrases  as  among  the  strongholds  of  their  system.  In  order  to 
get  rid  of  the  Lord's  day,  they  endeavour  to  show  that  the  ex 
pression  fita  cra/^aTwv,  rendered  in  our  Bibles  "  the  first  day  of 
the  week,"  cannot  refer  to  this  day,  but  signifies  "  one  of  the 
Sabbaths,"  or  "  one  day  of  the  week."  But  what  Mark  and  the 
other  evangelists  call  /u'a  arajSpdTuv,  the  former  designates  Tr/atory 
<ra/3/3aTov,  thus  determining  the  meaning  of  both  expressions  to 
be  the  same,  the  first  day  of  the  week.  The  females  who  designed 
to  embalm  the  body  of  Jesus  did  not  proceed  to  fulfil  their  inten 
tion  till  after  the  Sabbath,  or  seventh  day,  was  over,  for  it  is  said, 
"  They  rested  the  Sabbath  day,  according  to  the  commandment,"1 
and  "  in  the  end  of  the  Sabbath,  as  it  began  to  dawn  toward  the 
ftrst  day  of  the  week,  came  to  see  the  sepulchre,"2  when  they 
found  Jesus  was  not  there.  It  was,  therefore,  on  the  day  after 
the  seventh  day,  or,  in  other  words,  on  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
that  his  resurrection  occurred.  "  You  say,"  observes  the  emi 
nent  mathematician,  Dr.  Wallis,  in  his  controversy  with  Mr. 
Thomas  Bampfield,  "  the  Greek  word  /u'a  signifies  one,  and  e£? 
/ua  Ij/  is  rendered  (not  the  first,  but)  one,  about  an  hundred  times 
in  our  translation  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  /u'a  o-a/3/3dr(Dv 
(which  we  translate  the  first  day  of  the  week}  you  render  by  one 
of  the  Sabbaths.  Now,  'tis  very  true  that  pia  in  Greek  doth  sig 
nify  one  (and  it  may  be  so  translated,  for  ought  I  know,  as  often 
as  you  say).  But  if  you  were  so  good  a  critic  as  to  correct  the 
translation,  you  might  have  known  that  pia  o-a/^arwv  cannot  sig 
nify  one  of  the  Sabbaths,  for  then  it  should  have  been  ev  cra/3(3a.- 
TO>V,  because  o-a/^ara  is  the  neuter  gender.  Would  you  think 
una  SMatorum  to  be  good  Latin  for  one  of  the  Sabbaths  1  And 
you  do  not  much  mend  it  when  you  say,  one  of  the  week,  meaning 
one  day  of  the  week  ;  for  if  by  one,  you  mean  some  one,  it  should 
then  be  TIS  ypepa,  not  /u'a  ypepa.  And  Matt,  xxviii.  1,  it  dawned 
or  drew  near  eis  rrjv  /uav  to  the  one,  not  to  some  one  day  inde 
finitely,  but  to  that  certain  day  which  was  known  by  the  name  of 

i  Luke  xxlii.  5fl.  *  Matt  xxviii  1. 


532  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

pia  <ra/?/3aTwv,  and  so  here  [Acts  xx.  7]  ev  rrj  pia  in  the  one,  etc. . . . 
But  since  you  are  now  content  to  allow,  that  by  /xia  craft pdruv  is 
generally  meant  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  in  some  places  cer 
tainly  so  meant,  and  may  be  so  meant  in  this  place,  and  probably 
is  so  meant  here  (to  which  you  may  add,  that  it  doth  not  appear 
any  where  to  be  otherwise  meant,  nor  do  you  offer  any  reason  or 
pretence  of  reason  why  not  so  meant  here  as  it  is  every  where  else). 
I  hope  you  will  not  be  offended  with  me  for  calling  it  trifling  to 
tell  us  again  and  again  (and  yet  to  insist  upon  it)  that  /u'a  signifies 
one.  If,  in  an  argument  at  Westminster  Hall,  when  it  doth  ap 
pear  that  such  a  thing  was  done  one  hour  after  twelve  o'clock,  you 
should  still  insist  upon  it  that  six  o'clock  is  one  hour,  and  that  it 
is  after  twelve,  and  therefore  this  might  be  at  six  o'clock  (or  any 
other  hour  of  the  day)  and  would  be  thought  in  earnest  when  you 
so  argue  ;  you  would  not  be  offended  if  the  Bar  or  the  Bench 
should  take  this  to  be  trifling,  and  the  best  excuse  that  could  be 
made  for  it  would  be,  surely  he  is  not  in  earnest.'"1 

Again,  from  the  manner  in  which  the  time  of  our  Lord's  second 
visit  to  his  disciples  is  intimated  in  John  xx.  26,  "And  after 
eight  days,  again  his  disciples  were  within,  and  Thomas  with  them. 
Then  came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood  in  the  midst, 
and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you,"  it  is  inferred  that  eight  complete 
days  must  have  intervened,  and  consequently  that  it  did  not  take 
place  on  the  day  which  is  observed  as  the  Christian  Sabbath.  In 
support  of  this  view,  it  is  attempted  to  explain  away  a  peculiar 
phraseology  common  to  the  sacred  writers,  customary  with  other 
authors,  as  well  as  in  the  ordinary  speech  of  various  nations,  and 
understood  by  all  as  exclusive,  not  inclusive,  of  parts  of  the  first 
and  last  days  in  the  series.  Thus  when  it  is  said  in  Luke  ii.  21, 
"  And  when  eight  days  were  accomplished  for  the  circumcising  of 

i  Defense  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  Partii.  pp.  34,  36.  Dr.  Wallis's  Defense  abounds 
in  learning,  ingenuity,  and  a  vein  of  good-natured  wit.  In  pleading  that  the  word 
Sabbath,  in  Matt.  xxiv.  20,  and  Acts  xiii.  42,  denotes  the  Christian  Sabbath,  he  says,  in 
reference  to  the  latter  text,  "  The  Gentiles  besought  that  these  words  might  be  preached 
to  them  the  next  Sabbath :"  "  '  The  next  Sabbath'  (TO  fj-era^it  (rdpfiaTOv)  is  the 
Sabbath  between  or  the  intermediate  Sabbath.  Now  what  can  be  that  intermediate 
Sabbath  (between  two  next  Sabbaths  of  the  Jews)  on  which  they  should  preach  to  the 
Gentiles,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Jews,  but  the  Christian  Sabbath  on  the  first  day 
of  the  week  ?"  None  of  the  commentators  that  we  have  consulted  adopts  this  meaning 
but  it  appears  to  us  to  deserve  more  consideration  than  it  has  received. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  533 

the  child,  his  name  was  called  Jesus,"  the  meaning  is,  not  that 
the  child  was  circumcised  on  the  ninth  day,  but  on  the  eighth, 
the  day  appointed  in  the  law  of  Moses.  It  is  repeatedly  stated 
that  Christ  was  to  rise  from  the  dead  after  the  third  day.1  But 
Christ  is  expressly  declared  to  have  risen  on  the  third  day.2  Jero 
boam  and  Israel  were  desired  by  Eehoboam  to  come  to  him  after 
three  days.3  Their  coming  on  the  third  day  (ver.  12),  proved  this 
to  be  the  day  intended.  The  Romans  used  the  expression,  "post 
paucos  dies"  after  a  few  days,  meaning  a  few  days  after.  A  third- 
day  ague  was,  in  Latin  phrase,  a  quartan,  one  occurring  every 
other  day  was  a  tertian.  The  French  call  a  fortnight,  quinze  jours, 
and  a  week,  huit  jours,  or  eight  days.  And  it  is  common  with 
many  amongst  ourselves  to  say,  "This  day  eight  days,"  eight 
days,  in  fact,  if  they  include  the  whole  of  the  first  and  last  day  of 
the  series,  but  only  seven,  "This  day  se'n-night,"  when  they 
count  from  a  certain  hour  of  the  first  to  the  corresponding  hour  of 
the  last.4 

Dr.  Paley  and  others  adduce  the  following  passages  as  evi 
dence  that  2500  years  had  passed  away  ere  a  Sabbatic  appoint 
ment  took  place  :  "  I  caused  them  to  go  forth  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  brought  them  into  the  wilderness  ;  and  I  gave  them 
my  statutes,  and  shewed  them  my  judgments,  which  if  a  man  do, 
he  shall  even  live  in  them.  Moreover,  also,  I  gave  them  my 
Sabbaths,  to  be  a  sign  between  me  and  them,  that  they  might 
know  that  I  am  the  Lord  that  sanctify  them."5  "  Thou  earnest 
down  also  upon  mount  Sinai,  and  spakest  with  them  from 
heaven,  and  gavest  them  right  judgments  and  true  laws,  good 
statutes  and  commandments  :  and  madest  known  unto  them  thy 
holy  Sabbath,  and  commandedst  them  precepts,  statutes,  and  laws, 
by  the  hand  of  Moses  thy  servant."6  To  insist  that  such  lan 
guage  establishes  the  origination  of  the  Sabbath  at  the  time  to 
which  it  refers,  requires  us  no  less  to  believe,  that  all  the  other 
statutes  mentioned  in  connexion  with  that  institution  were  then 
also  enacted.  According  to  this  doctrine,  sacrifices,  the  Deca 
logue,  and  circumcision,  must  have  then  in  the  first  instance  been 

i  Matt,  xxvii.  63  ;  Mark  viii  31.  2  Luke  xxviL  7 ;  1  Cor.  xv.  4. 

8  2  Chron.  x.  5.  «  Compare  Esther  iv.  16 ;  v.  1. 

*  Exek.  xx  10,  It.  «  Neh.  ix.  IS,  14. 


634  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

appointed.  But  sacrifices  had  been  offered  as  early  as  the  days 
of  Abel  ;  the  ten  commandments  had  been  in  force  from  the 
creation,  for  there  are  traces  of  them  all  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  : 
"  For  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world,  but  sin  is  not  im 
puted  when  there  is  no  law  ;"  and  circumcision  had  been  insti 
tuted  four  hundred  years  before.  How  strikingly,  as  to  this 
last-mentioned  ordinance,  does  the  rule  of  induction  expose  the 
fallacy  of  Dr.  Paley's  argument !  Circumcision,  like  the  Sabbath, 
is  mentioned  as  given  at  the  commencement  of  the  Levitical  dis 
pensation  :  "  Moses  gave  unto  you  circumcision  ;  not  because  it 
is  of  Moses,  but  of  the  fathers."1  No  less  decisive  is  another 
example.  While  it  is  said,  "  Thou  madest  known  unto  them  thy 
holy  Sabbath,"  it  is  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  declared,  "  He 
showeth  his  word  unto  Jacob,  his  statutes  and  his  judgments  unto 
Israel."  But  Abraham  knew  the  word,  statutes,  and  judgments 
of  God,  though  not  so  fully,  yet  as  substantially  as  his  descend 
ants,  else  it  could  not  have  been  said  of  him  :  "  I  know  him, 
that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his  household  after  him, 
and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judg 
ment  ;  that  the  Lord  may  bring  upon  Abraham  that  which  he 
hath  spoken  of  him."2  The  explanation  of  "  the  giving  of  Sab 
baths,"  "  the  making  known  of  God's  holy  Sabbath,"  "  the  giving 
of  right  judgments  and  true  laws,  good  statutes  and  command 
ments,"  "  the  showing  of  his  word,  his  statutes  and  his  judg 
ments  "  to  Israel,  as  compared  with  earlier  gifts  and  command 
ments  to  mankind,  is,  that  laws  arid  institutions  previously 
appointed  and  known  were  at  Sinai,  with  superadded  ceremonies 
and  political  statutes,  formally  promulgated,  committed  to  writing, 
and  organized  into  a  regular  system.  This  was  a  great  boon, 
indeed,  but  it  no  more  disproves  the  antecedent  institution  of  the 
Sabbath  than  it  does  that  of  circumcision,  or  of  the  existing  laws 
requiring  honour  to  parents,  and  respect  for  property  and  human 
life.  Still  less  do  the  words,  "  I  gave  them  my  Sabbaths  to  be 
a  sign  between  me  and  them,"  convey  the  idea  of  an  entirely 
new  gift.  This  is  manifest  from  Deut.  vi.  4-9,  where  it  is 
said,  "  Hear,  0  Israel ;  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord  :  and 
thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with 

i  John  vii.  22,  *  Gea  xviii.  \9, 


THEORIES  TRIED.  535 

all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.  And  these  words,  which  I 
command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine  heart  ;  and  thou  shalt 
teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children — and  thou  shalt  bind 
them  for  a  sign  upon  thine  hand,  and  they  shall  be  as  frontlets 
between  thine  eyes.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the  posts  of 
thy  house,  and  on  thy  gates."  The  law,  which  was  a  sign  to 
Israel,  was  to  "  go  forth  out  of  Zion,"  and  did  go  forth.  And 
so  the  Sabbath,  notwithstanding  any  local  or  temporary  purpose 
served  by  it,  might  be  destined  to  be,  as  it  has  in  reality  become, 
a  law  and  blessing  to  mankind. 

Some  of  these  remarks  serve  to  introduce  another  mistaken  view 
of  the  laws  of  Moses.  The  writers  in  question  confound  things 
that  differ,  blending  together  the  moral,  ceremonial,  and  civil  laws 
of  the  Jews.  Dr.  Paley,  for  the  purpose,  we  presume,  of  showing 
that  the  Sabbath  must  have  taken  its  rise  in  the  wilderness,  and 
in  connexion  with  the  Jewish  economy,  adduces  some  adjuncts  of 
the  institution  as  it  existed  under  that  economy.  He  mentions, 
in  the  first  place,  the  strict  cessation  from  work,  enjoined  by  the 
law  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  upon  Jews  and  all  residing  within  the 
limits  of  the  State,  the  permission  of  such  cessation  to  their  slaves 
and  their  cattle,  and  the  punishment  of  the  violation  of  this  rest 
with  death.1  Now,  here,  that  able  writer  conceives  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  and  of  certain  judicial  regulations,  pecu 
liar  to  that  people  and  time,  as  if  they  were  the  same  thing. 
But  the  penalty  of  death,  forming  a  part  of  the  political  law, 
which  assigned  the  same  punishment  to  idolatry  and  disobedience 
to  parents,  is  not  specified  in  the  Fourth  Commandment.  The 
political  law,  except  in  so  far  as  it  expressed  the  eternal  principles 
of  morality,  was  the  law  of  a  nation  only  in  which  the  Church  and 
State  were  one,  and  is  not  therefore  generally  applicable  to  any 
other  nation.  It  might  be  as  justly  affirmed  that  duty  to  parents 
was  a  peculiarity  of  Judaism,  beginning  and  ending  with  it,  as 
that  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  was  such  a  peculiarity,  since 
the  one  as  well  as  the  other  was,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  required 
on  pain  of  death.2  As  Dr.  Paley  does  not  cite  instances  from 
Scripture  of  strictness  in  the  injunction  of  rest,  but  only  facts  in 
the  conduct  of  the  Jews,  we  will  not  go  with  him  into  this 

1  Exodus  xxxl.  15.  2  Dent  xxi.  18,  21. 


536  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

subject,  observing  only  that  what  the  Fourth  Commandment  re 
quired  in  this  matter  must  not  be  identified  with  anything  really 
burdensome,  or  with  oppressive  ceremonies  added  by  the  Jews, 
since  the  institution  which  it  regulated  was  to  be  called  "  a  de 
light,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  and  honourable."1 

"  Besides  which,"  says  Dr.  Paley,  "  the  seventh  day  was  to  be 
solemnized  by  double  sacrifices."2  These  sacrifices,  however,  as 
compared  with  those  offered  in  some  other  festivals,  were  not  bur 
densome.  Whether  the  former  were  required  before  the  time  of 
Moses  we  are  not  informed.  In  the  temple-worship  described  by 
Ezekiel,  and  not  without  good  reason  supposed  emblematically  to 
portray  the  state  of  things  in  the  Christian  Church,  the  sacrifices 
of  the  Sabbath  were  to  be  still  more  numerous.3  The  double  sa 
crifices  under  the  law  make  nothing  against  the  early  origin  and 
permanent  obligation  of  a  day  of  sacred  rest.  They  were  shadows 
of  good  things  to  come,  to  pass  away  when  the  substance  was 
realized,  but  as  types  have  their  corresponding  realities,  so  these 
sacrifices  and  those  described  by  Ezekiel  appear  to  have  prefigured 
not  only  the  sacred  services  of  the  future  Christian  Sabbath,  but 
the  multiplication  on  that  day  of  religious  observances  which  their 
own  simplicity,  the  spirituality  of  the  worshippers,  and  a  larger 
supply  of  Divine  influence,  would  render  a  yoke  that  should  be 
easy  and  a  burden  that  should  be  light. 

The  "holy  convocations"4  which  Dr.  Paley  further  adduces  as 
a  characteristic  of  the  Mosaical  Sabbath,  although  in  the  case  of 
the  Jews  connected  with  ritual  observances  that  were  more  frequent 
and  organized  than  in  the  times  of  the  patriarchs,  and  belong  not 
to  Christianity,  have  always  been  practised  from  the  period  when 
men  began  to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  down  to  our  own 
day.  The  same  law  which  gave  authority  to  the  Patriarchal  and 
Jewish  convocations  requires  "  the  assembling  of  ourselves  toge 
ther"  for  the  simpler  services  of  the  Christian  worship. 

The  distinction,  however,  between  the  various  laws  of  Moses, 
although  lost  sight  of  in  some  cases,  as  we  have  seen,  is  at  other 
times  recognised  by  Dr.  Paley,  who  does  not  hesitate  to  rank  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  among  merely  ritual  appointments.  "  The  3is» 

i  Isa.  Iviii.  13.  2  j$um.  xxviii.  9, 10. 

«  Ez»k.  xxvi.  4  «  Lev.  xxiii.  8. 


THEORIES  TRIED,  537 

tinction  of  the  Sabbath,"  he  observes,  "  is,  in  its  nature,  as  much 
a  positive  ceremonial  institution,  as  that  of  many  other  seasons 
which  were  appointed  by  the  Levitical  law  to  be  kept  holy,  and 
to  be  observed  by  a  strict  rest ;  as  the  first  and  seventh  days  of 
unleavened  bread  ;  the  feast  of  Pentecost ;  the  feast  of  Taber 
nacles  :  and  in  Exodus  xxiii.  the  Sabbath  and  these  are  recited  to 
gether."1  One  important  difference  between  the  Sabbath  and  the 
other  institutions  here  compared,  however,  is  that  none  of  the 
latter  has  a  place  in  the  Decalogue.  Dr.  Paley  sees  something  in 
the  recital  of  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Exodus,  but  nothing  in 
the  recital  of  the  twentieth  chapter.  He  himself  overturns  his 
only  proof  of  the  preceding  statement  by  afterwards  producing 
cases  in  which  "  ceremonial  and  political  duties,  confessedly  of 
partial  obligation,  are  enumerated  along  with  others  which  are 
natural  and  universal,"  "the  distinction  between  positive  and 
natural  duties,  like  other  distinctions  of  modern  ethics,  being  un 
known  to  the  simplicity  of  ancient  language."2  We  object  not  to 
his  taking  one  or  other  of  the  grounds  that  the  juxtaposition  of 
subjects  is  or  is  not  an  evidence  of  their  character,  but  it  is  too 
much  to  urge  that  the  Sabbath  is  a  positive  duty  because  classed 
with  ceremonies,  and  not  a  moral  duty  because  included  in  an 
enumeration  of  matters  belonging  to  morals.  There  are  undoubt 
edly  instances  in  which  the  two  classes  of  subjects  are  intermingled, 
but  not  when  laws  are  formally  enacted  or  proclaimed,  and  when 
accuracy,  order,  and  the  interest  and  intelligent  obedience  of  those 
to  be  ruled  by  them,  require  that  they  should  be  placed  in  their 
respective  categories.  And  our  minds  must  be  peculiarly  con 
structed  or  biassed,  if,  considering  the  Decalogue  as  consisting  of 
laws  not  only  of  universal  concern,  but  carefully  detached  from 
political  and  ceremonial  statutes,  and  alone  announced  in  circum 
stances  of  special  solemnity  and  grandeur,  we  can  discern  no  dif 
ference  in  character  between  a  precept  prohibiting  idolatry  or 
murder,  and  one  forbidding  to  touch  a  dead  body,  or  to  plough 
with  an  ox  and  an  ass  together. 

The  other  reasons  assigned  by  the  same  writer  for  regarding  the 
Sabbath  "  as  part  of  the  peculiar  law  of  the  Jewish  policy,"  if 
more  consistent,  are  not  much  more  weighty,  than  the  one  now 

i  Paley's  WorTct,  vol.  iv.  p.  20d  »  Ibid.  pp.  297,  298. 


538  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

examined.  He  says,  "If  the  command  by  which  the  Sabbatlj 
was  instituted  be  binding  upon  Christians,  it  must  be  binding  as 
to  the  day,  the  duties,  and  the  penalty  ;  in  none  of  which  it  is 
received."  He  might  have  as  well  said,  The  command  of  worship 
given  to  the  Jews,  if  binding  on  us,  must  bind  us  to  go  to  Jeru 
salem  at  certain  times  for  that  purpose,  to  practise  circumcision, 
and  to  observe  the  passover  with  all  the  other  sacrifices.  He 
might  have  said,  The  command  of  reverence  in  worship,  if  apply 
ing  to  us,  must  require  us  to  put  off  our  shoes,  and  to  direct  our 
eyes  to  a  holy  place,  made  with  hands.  He  might  have  said,  If 
the  law  which  obliged  the  Jews  to  abstain  from  idolatry  and  to 
honour  their  parents  be  obligatory  upon  us,  it  must  be  so  in  both 
cases  on  pain  of  death.  Again,  he  alleges,  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  was  not  one  of  the  articles  enjoined  by  the  apostles  in 
Acts  xv.  upon  them  "  which  from  among  the  Gentiles  were  turned 
unto  God."  The  enumeration  referred  to  in  this  passage  makes 
nothing  against  the  institution,  as  it  is  not  complete  in  respect  of 
either  ritual  or  moral  duties,  and  is  utterly  irrelevant  to  the 
writer's  purpose.  But  it  is  relevant  to  the  purpose  of  proving  the 
opposite  of  what  it  is  adduced  to  establish.  The  decision  of  the 
Synod  of  Jerusalem  was,  that  the  Gentile  believers  were  to  abstain 
from  certain  things  which  were  offensive  to  their  Jewish  brethren. 
And  as  nothing  would  have  been  more  offensive  to  those  Christians 
who  had  formerly  been  Jews  than  the  neglect  of  a  day  of  rest  on 
the  part  of  the  converts  from  among  the  heathen,  the  absence  of 
any  injunction  to  keep  such  a  day  indicates  that  no  offence  existed 
on  that  score.  Finally,  it  is  affirmed  that  "  St.  Paul  evidently 
appears  to  have  considered  the  Sabbath  as  part  of  the  Jewish 
ritual,  and  not  obligatory  upon  Christians  as  such  :  *  Let  no  man 
judge  you  in  meat,  or  in  drink,  or  in  respect  of  a  holy  day,  or  of 
the  new  moon,  or  of  the  Sabbath-days,  which  are  a  shadow  of 
things  to  come  ;  but  the  body  is  of  Christ."1  These  words  have 
been  already  noticed.  Let  us  add  a  very  few  remarks.  The  pas 
sage  goes  to  protect  Christians  against  attempts  to  impose  upon 
them  the  Jewish  ceremonies  of  distinctions  of  meat,  and  the  dis 
tinctions  of  such  days  as  holy  days,  new  moons,  and  Sabbath-days. 
But  the  Fourth  Commandment  was  not  ceremonial  There  was  no 

i  Col.  ii.  16,  17. 


THEORIES  TBIED.  539 

ceremony  in  a  season  of  rest  and  devotion  on  a  seventh  day  more 
than  in  the  diligent  labour  of  the  other  six.  If  the  Apostle  vindi 
cated  their  right  to  keep  no  day  holy,  he  also  vindicated  their  right 
to  occupy  no  day  in  a  secular  calling.  If  they  were  left  free  to 
have  every  man  his  own  day  of  worship,  they  were  left  free  also 
vo  disregard  the  anciently  appointed  season  of  industry.  That 
some  professing  Christians  had  taken  up  these  loose  notions  appears 
from  the  reproof  which  the  same  Apostle  addresses  in  another 
epistle  to  the  disorderly  persons  who  made  every  day  a  day  of  rest. 
How  obvious  that  by  the  Sabbath  days  the  Apostle  cannot  mean 
a  day  of  holy  rest  absolutely  viewed,  but  the  days  fixed  of  old 
among  the  Jews,  including  the  particular  day  of  the  ancient  Sab 
bath,  which  as  being  all  typical  had  been  fulfilled  in  Christ,  and 
any  imposition  of  which  now  involved  a  rejection  of  Him  !  It  was 
with  the  former  weekly  resting-day  as  with  circumcision,  there  was 
to  be  a  bearing  with  Jewish  prejudice  ;  but  as  the  attempt  to  com 
pel  Gentiles  to  be  circumcised  was  condemned  by  the  Apostle  as 
an  infringement  of  their  rights,  and  as  even  involving  a  renuncia 
tion  of  Christianity,  so  for  the  Jews  to  judge  Gentile  converts  in 
regard  to  meats  and  days  was  also  an  infraction  of  their  liberty, 
and  an  act  of  constructive  treason  against  Christ  as  their  risen 
Saviour,  and  the  author  of  a  finished  redemption.  This  was  more 
than  the  law  of  Moses  itself  had  required,  as  Gentiles  might  be 
proselytes  without  being  bound  to  the  ceremonies  of  that  law. 

It  thus  appears  that  various  theories  and  arguments  militating 
against  our  doctrine  are  incapable  of  standing  before  the  applica 
tion  of  the  just  and  Divine  rule  which  requires  us  to  "  compare 
spiritual  things  with  spiritual."  To  give  one  more  example,  how 
completely  does  a  writer,  acting  on  this  rule,  overthrow  the  tenet 
of  an  e very-day  Sabbath  in  two  sentences  !  "  Some  indeed  here 
argue  :  it  [the  New  Dispensation]  is  more  spiritual,  because  we 
consider  every  day  a  Sabbath  ;  we  are  every  day  to  live  to  the 
glory  of  God.  But  was  not  this  the  duty  of  the  people  of  God  in 
former  times  as  well  as  now,  and  this  did  not  prevent  a  seventh 
part  of  their  time  being  immediately  consecrated  to  the  Divine 
service."1 

Fourth  Rule. — It  must  be  remembered  that  the  mind  and  wiU 

1  Innes's  Christ.  Sab.  p.  62. 


540  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

of  God  are  made  known  to  us  in  various  modes.  It  would  be  a 
serious  mistake  in  any  reader  of  the  Bible  to  conceive  that  the 
Divine  Being  must  be  limited  to  an  express  declaration  for  every 
truth  that  He  propounds,  and  to  an  express  command  for  every  duty 
that  He  enjoins — that  He  cannot  convey  his  thoughts  in  the  differ 
ent  forms  of  explicit  affirmation,  figurative  language,  examples,  or 
statements  from  which  conclusions  are  to  be  drawn — and  that  He 
may  not  utter  to  a  few  individuals  matters  of  universal  concern, 
as  well  as,  for  the  benefit  of  a  small  circle,  frame  laws  of  general 
and  abiding  importance — that  He  may  not,  for  example,  announce 
to  Adam  a  catholic  Sabbath,  or  to  the  small  nation  of  the  Jews 
an  everlasting  gospel  and  a  world-embracing  Decalogue.  This 
would  be  to  deny  to  the  Supreme  a  right  which  we  ourselves  fre 
quently  exercise  ;  this  would  be  to  refuse  to  the  All-wise  and  the 
All-kind,  the  ability  or  the  disposition  to  communicate  with  us 
after  the  manner  of  men — a  mode  of  communication  which  in  con 
descension  and  mercy  to  the  creatures  of  the  dust  He  has  ever 
employed.  If  we  will  not  follow  this  obvious  rule  for  coming  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  our  duty,  we  must  walk  on  in 
darkness. 

This  rule  is  transgressed  by  an  opinion  which  has  led  to  much 
error  on  our  subject,  and  which  is  itself  demonstratively  erroneous. 
The  opinion  is,  that,  because  there  is  no  formal  command  in  the 
narrative  of  Genesis  ii.  1-3  for  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day, 
or  in  the  New  Testament  for  the  observance  of  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  we  have  no  proof  that  either  a  primitive  Sabbath  or 
the  Lord's  day  has,  or  ever  had,  the  force  of  a  law.  The  error 
takes  its  rise  in  a  preconceived  notion  of  what  is  necessary  as  evi 
dence  on  this  subject.  When  we  look  into  the  sacred  volume,  we 
find  that  the  Divine  will  may  be  made  known  by  actions  or  by  state 
ments,  from  which  we  have  to  infer  our  duty  or  privilege,  as  well 
as  in  a  directly  preceptive  or  declaratory  form.  If  express  statute 
were  in  every  case  required  to  constitute  obligation,  then  no  law 
of  marriage  was  enacted  in  Paradise,  because  the  Creator  merely 
performed  an  action  and  pronounced  a  benediction  ;  no  real,  be 
cause  only  an  inferential,  prohibition  of  murder  was  uttered  in  the 
words,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood 
be  shed ;"  and  in  the  promise,  "  They  shall  not  teach  every  man 


THEORIES  TRIED.  541 

his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the 
Lord,"  there  is  no  actual,  because  no  explicit,  injunction  to  every 
Christian  to  impart  religious  instruction  to  others  so  long  as  all 
know  not  the  Lord  from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  On  the  same 
principle,  there  never  existed  even  a  Jewish  Sabbath,  for  both  in 
the  wilderness  of  Sin  and  at  Sinai  the  commands  respecting  a  day 
of  rest  refer  to  a  previous  gift  and  law,  of  which,  however,  we 
have  no  record  except  in  the  narrative  of  Genesis.  The  principle, 
therefore,  must  be  false.  It  is  false,  for  from  the  case  of  the  law 
of  marriage,  which  our  Lord  declares  was  from  the  beginning,  and 
from  the  other  cases  named,  we  learn  that  actions  and  statements, 
without  the  formality  of  a  precept,  have  been  employed  to  express 
"  the  will  of  God  concerning  us."  It  is  false,  for  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  the  existence  of  a  Jewish  Sabbath,  promulgated  in 
the  Decalogue,  not,  however,  as  a  new,  but  as  an  old  institution, 
founded  on  the  work  and  rest  of  the  first  week  of  time.  "  If 
they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per 
suaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 

Let  us  present  another  instance  of  the  violation  of  a  divinely 
given  law  of  Scripture  interpretation.  It  has  been  held  to  be  a 
just  objection  to  the  general  and  permanent  character  of  legislation, 
that  it  has  been  connected  with  local  and  temporary  circumstances. 
This  is  an  unfounded  objection,  and  calls  in  question  a  rule  accord 
ing  to  which  the  infinite  Intelligence  has  seen  it  meet  to  act  in 
divulging  saving  truth  and  human  obligations.  It  has  been  the 
Divine  method  to  make  known  matters  of  universal  concern  in 
connexion  with  particular  places  and  occurrences,  and  to  present 
them,  not  in  cold  abstractions,  but  as  naturally  springing  up 
amidst  the  business  and  occasions  of  human  life.  Thus  the 
appointment  of  deacons  grew  out  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
Apostles  and  the  increasing  accessions  to  the  Church.  The  Lord's 
Supper  was  instituted  by  Christ  in  the  presence  only  of  his 
disciples,  and  a  renewed  revelation  of  its  divine  authority  arose 
from  the  abuses  which  certain  individuals  had  introduced,  and  was 
given  only  to  one  church.  A  great  part,  indeed,  of  the  instruc 
tion  which  we  find  in  Scripture  respecting  the  everlasting  and 
catholic  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  was  addressed  to  churches  and 
individuals  of  the  first  age  of  Christianity.  It  was  the  same  in 

24 


542  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

times  still  more  remote.  The  very  earliest  notice  of  a  Saviour 
was  not  directly  addressed  to  the  world,  which  it  was  intended  to 
encourage  and  bless,  but  to  the  great  enemy  of  the  Saviour  and 
of  man.  And  other  animating  promises,  which  have  cheered 
the  people  of  God  in  all  subsequent  time,  were  made  to  indi 
viduals.  From  the  remarks  now  made  we  should  be  led  to  expect, 
and  prepared  to  account  for,  the  embedding  as  it  were  of  laws, 
susceptible  of  the  most  extensive  and  enduring  application,  in  a 
phraseology  and  in  allusions  of  a  local  and  temporary  character. 
And  yet  the  actual  specialties  in  the  Decalogue  are  so  few  and  so 
clearly  consonant  to  the  universality  of  its  import  and  bearings,  as 
to  show  how  careful  the  Lawgiver  was  to  render  it  inexcusable  for 
any  one  to  reject  its  right  and  claim  to  be  the  law  of  the  world. 
There  is  the  preface,  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  that  brought  thee 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and  out  of  the  house  of  bondage."  Strictly 
speaking,  the  preface  or  preamble  does  not  enter  into  the  law.  In 
the  present  case,  it  is  the  Gospel  rather  than  a  part  of  the  Law. 
How  obvious  the  principle  implied,  which  is,  that  the  mercy  of 
the  Lawgiver,  especially  as  exhibited  in  the  work  of  Redemption, 
is  the  mighty  inducement  to  do  His  will ;  for  when  we  consider 
the  faithful  among  Israel  as  constituting  with  Christians  one 
Church,  "  the  seed  of  Abraham,"  and  "  heirs  according  to  the 
promise,"  and  that  the  redemption  from  Egypt  was  a  type  of  the 
great  redemption,  as  well  as  a  step  to  its  accomplishment,  it  does  not 
require  what  is  called  an  "  accommodation"  to  apply  this  preface 
far  beyond  the  typical  deliverance,  and  to  regard  it  as  pointing 
to  the  infinitely  more  influential  motives  to  obedience  that  are 
supplied  by  a  spiritual  and  everlasting  salvation.  There  is  also 
this  promise  to  filial  obedience,  "  That  thy  days  may  be  long  upon 
the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee."  The  apostle 
Paul  does  not  hesitate  to  apply  the  fifth  commandment,  and  its 
promise  too,  to  the  children  of  Christian  parents,  "  Children,  obey 
your  parents  in  the  Lord  :  for  this  is  right.  Honour  thy  father 
and  mother,  which  is  the  first  commandment  with  promise,  that 
it  may  be  well  with  thee,  and  thou  mayest  live  long  on  the  earth." 
And,  once  more,  the  second  commandment  has  annexed  to  it  a 
threatening  and  a  promise,  which  may  be  conceived  by  some  to  bd 
applicable  only  to  the  Jews  :  "  Visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 


THEOEIES  TRIED.  543 

upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me  ;  and  showing  mercy  unto  thousands  of  them  that 
love  me  and  keep  my  commandments."  But  both  the  curse  and 
the  blessing  were  attached  to  the  law  of  God  long  before  it  was 
given  at  Sinai,  and  have  extended  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Judea,  as  well  as  endured  long  after  the  Mosaic  economy  had 
ceased.  Was  there  anything  Judaical  in  the  blessing  pronounced 
upon  Sheni  and  Japheth,  or  in  the  curse  uttered  against  Ham  ? 
Did  not  both  the  curse  and  the  blessing  begin  to  take  effect  before 
the  time  of  Moses  1  Have  they  not  continued  to  operate  in  all 
nations  1  And  are  not  their  effects  perceptible  in  the  circumstances 
of  the  descendants  of  Noah  even  at  this  hour  1 

Fifth  Rule. — There  are  matters,  external  to  the  Word  of  God, 
which  serve  to  illustrate  its  import,  as  well  as  to  establish  par 
ticular  meanings,  and  which  cannofe  be  innocently,  or  without 
injury,  overlooked.  The  understanding  of  Scripture,  as  of  other 
writings,  is  aided  by  our  "  intermeddling  with  all  wisdom."  It 
is  the  glory,  indeed,  of  that  Book  that  a  person  devoid  of  erudition 
may  learn  there  all  that  he  needs  to  know  for  his  salvation,  duty, 
and  eternal  happiness.  But  such  a  person,  though  uninitiated  in 
the  learning  of  the  schools,  has  access  to  valuable  means  of  illu 
minating  to  him  the  page  of  Revelation — means,  in  the  events  of 
Providence,  in  the  knowledge  of  himself,  in  the  experience  of  the 
truth,  in  the  observed  conduct  of  others,  and  in  his  own  obedience 
to  the  Divine  law — all  of  which  pour  a  flood  of  illustration  on 
the  meaning,  and  of  evidence  on  the  authority,  of  the  Sacred 
Volume.  The  more  generally  intelligent  the  reader  is,  however, 
the  more  is  he  prepared  to  profit  by  its  study.  "  Ye  shall  know 
them  by  their  fruits,"  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them 
that  fear  Him."  "  If  any  man  will  do  the  will  of  God,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God."  "  Wisdom  and 
knowledge  shall  be  the  stability  of  thy  times." 

The  testimony  of  the  Fathers  to  the  meaning  of  the  expressions, 
"the  first  day  of  the  week,"  and  "the  Lord's  day"  (see  pp. 
368-370),  the  "fruits"  of  the  weekly  holiday  considered  as  a 
Divinely-appointed  day  of  entire  rest  and  worship  for  all  ages 
(pp.  173-266),  and  the  history  of  septenary  observances  in  Pagan 
and  Christian  countries  (pp.  359-455),  satisfy  the  conditions  of 


544  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

this  rule  to  the  effect  of  showing  that  the  above-defined  institution 
has  the  appointment  and  sanction  of  Revelation.  As  to  all  other 
doctrines  and  practices  in  the  matter,  we  ask,  Where  is  the  external 
evidence  by  which  they  are  proved  to  be  authorized  in  the  Word  of 
God — evidence  in  the  events  of  Providence,  in  the  experience  of 
good,  and  the  consciences  of  bad  men,  in  the  superior  virtue  and 
happiness  of  individuals  and  families,  in  the  purity,  progress,  and 
active  benevolence  of  churches,  in  the  peace,  enterprise,  and  pros 
perity  of  nations  1  The  only  answer  that  is  or  can  be  returned, 
is  that  of  Echo  shouting,  Where  ? 

Sixth  Rule. — This  is  contained  in  the  words  :  "  The  light  of 
the  body  is  the  eye  :  therefore  when  thine  eye  is  single,  thy 
whole  body  also  is  full  of  light ;  but  when  thine  eye  is  evil,  thy 
body  also  is  full  of  darkness.  Take  heed,  therefore,  that  the 
light  which  is  in  thee  be  not  darkness."  * 

Seventh  Rule. — If  we  would  study  the  sacred  volume  to  any 
right  and  good  purpose,  we  must  continually  apply  for  help  to  its 
Author,  who,  as  is  in  a  limited  sense  true  of  human  authors,  must 
be  best  acquainted  with  His  own  work.  Without  His  direct  teach 
ing  neither  its  truths  nor  its  laws  can  be  understood  and  estimated. 
This  is  owing  not  to  any  imperfection  in  the  Record,  for  "  the  law 
uf  the  Lord  is  perfect,"  but  to  the  blinding  prejudices  and  passions 
of  the  human  mind.  It  is  only  as  we  are  purged  from  this  in 
fluence  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  we  shall  clearly  see  the  light,  and 
truly  receive  the  testimony,  of  Heaven.  The  best  of  all  means 
for  understanding  the  Word  of  God  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  as 
to  all  other  matters,  is  thus  described  :  "  Trust  in  the  Lord  with 
all  thine  heart  ;  and  lean  not  unto  thine  own  understanding.  In 
all  thy  ways  acknowledge  him,  and  he  shall  direct  thy  paths." 
"  Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out 
of  thy  law."  "  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God, 
that  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  upbraideth  not  ;  and  it  shall 
be  given  him.  But  let  him  ask  in  faith,  nothing  wavering.  For 
he  that  wavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea,  driven  with  the  wind 
and  tossed.  For  let  not  that  man  think  that  he  shall  receive  any 
thing  of  the  Lord." 

Let  it  not  be  said,  The  world  is  without  the   means  of  knov- 

i  Luke  xl.  34,  35. 


THEORIES  TKTFJX 

ing  that  this  or  that  person  is  favoured  with  "the  single  eye" 
or  with  the  spirit  of  dependence  upon  "  the  Father  of  lights," 
in  the  study  of  Scripture,  and,  therefore,  Rules  6  and  7  can 
afford  no  help  in  deciding  between  contending  opinions  in  this 
controversy.  Not  only,  however,  are  these  rules  necessary  to  the 
discovery  of  the  truth,  and  thus  to  the  practical  and  experimental 
settlement  of  the  dispute,  on  the  part  of  each  individual,  but  they 
are  also  relevant  and  important  as  means  of  enabling  us  to  adju 
dicate  on  conflicting  opinions  even  in  open  court.  Honest  and 
earnest  inquirers  "  cannot  be  hid."  There  are  churches  and 
communities  in  which  the  love  of  truth  and  the  spirit  of  devo 
tion  have  manifestly  prevailed.  And  as  the  Divine  promises  to 
men  of  such  a  character  cannot  fail,  the  irresistible  conclusion  is 
that  in  these  societies  right  views  of  the  Sabbath  have  been 
on  the  whole  attained,  and  attained  in  proportion  to  the  sim 
plicity  of  the  aim  and  the  measure  of  the  piety.  To  identify 
these  successful  inquirers,  we  should  have  only  to  repeat  the  names, 
already  given  in  this  volume,  of  those  classes  of  men,  at  home  and 
abroad,  who  are  most  signalized  at  once  by  the  sacred  observance 
of  the  weekly  rest,  by  their  reverence  and  love  for  the  other  in 
stitutions  and  laws  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  their  zeal  in 
them  over  the  earth. 


046  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THEORIES  TRIED  BY  DIVINE  PREDICTIONS. 

THE  Pentateuch  is  by  far  the  oldest  historical  record.  There 
we  find  it  stated  that  the  seventh  day  of  time  was  blessed  and 
sanctified  by  the  Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  Various 
references  in  the  history  of  the  Patriarchs,  and  many  vestiges  of 
the  institution  among  heathen  nations,  admit  of  but  one  explana 
tion,  which  is,  that  it  had  been  continued  from  the  beginning  of 
time.  When  the  children  of  Israel  came  out  of  Egypt,  their  law 
giver  and  leader  referred  to  the  day  of  rest  as  an  appointment  with 
which  they  were  acquainted.  The  Saviour  declared  without  chal 
lenge,  that  Moses  was  read  in  the  synagogue  every  Sabbath-day. 
We  have  also  the  testimony  of  Josephus  and  Philo  to  the  existence 
of  the  institution  during  the  Jewish  ecomony.  In  the  writings  of 
Isaiah,  besides  promises  to  those  who  should  observe  the  Sabbath,  of 
an  everlasting  name,  and  of  a  place  in  the  house  of  prayer  for  all 
people,  which  plainly  point  to  the  times  of  Christianity,  we  have  this 
prediction  and  pledge :  "For  as  the  new  heavens,  and  the  new  earth, 
which  I  will  make,  shall  remain  before  me,  saith  the  Lord,  so  shall 
your  seed  and  your  name  remain.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 
from  one  new  moon  to  another,  and  from  one  Sabbath  to  another, 
shall  all  flesh  come  to  worship  before  me,  saith  the  Lord."1 
And  to  mention  only  one  other  intimation  regarding  the  perpe 
tuity  of  the  Sabbath,  the  Founder  of  Christianity  said,  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  concerning  the  law,  of  which  the  Sabbath  was 
a  part,  "  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in 
no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."2  These  words 
have  been  verified  down  to  this  day.  We  can  trace  the  never- 
failing  observance  of  the  Sabbath  for  eighteen  centuries  prior  to 

i  In.  Irvi.  22,  23.  2  Matt  v.  18. 


THEORIES  TEIED.  54V 

the  present  time.  Thus  far,  then,  the  language  of  Christ  and  of 
Isaiah  has  held  true.  The  ordinance,  indeed,  has  not  been  uni 
versal,  and  only  by  some  maintained  in  its  purity,  but  its  preser 
vation  and  true  observance  among  any  and  so  many  in  all  ages, 
establish  the  truth  of  the  foregoing  promises  respecting  it,  and 
thus  its  own  Divine  authority.  Nor  are  the  instances  in  which 
the  Sabbath  is  abolished  or  lost  unavailing  as  evidence  on  its  be 
half.  They  are  adducible  to  establish  its  Divine  authority,  as  thej 
are  the  fulfilment  of  another  class  of  predictions — those,  we  mean, 
which  have  foretold  its  withdrawal  as  the  result  of  its  abuse. 
But  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  does  more  than  prove  the  truth  of 
the  Divine  Word  as  respects  the  promised  continuance  of  the  in 
stitution.  It  enables  us  to  decide  between  contending  theories 
relative  to  other  aspects  of  the  subject,  and  it  is  to  this  point  that 
we  are  now  to  call  the  attention  of  our  readers. 

First  of  all,  the  accomplishment  of  prophecy  settles  the  ques 
tions  that  have  been  raised  respecting  the  proportion  of  time  and 
the  particular  day  of  the  Christian  Sabbath.  The  words  lately 
quoted  from  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  stand  connected  with  his 
glowing  descriptions  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that 
should  follow,  both  in  His  own  exaltation  and  in  His  benignant 
reign  over  the  earth.  Of  the  happy  times  of  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  earth,  or  the  Christian  dispensation,  when  the 
Gentiles  should  be  brought  for  an  offering  unto  the  Lord  out  of 
all  nations,  it  is  declared,  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  from 
one  Sabbath  to  another,  shall  all  flesh  come  to  worship  before  me, 
saith  the  Lord."1  Then,  again,  when  the  prophet  Ezekiel  had 
his  vision  of  the  Temple — a  vision,  which,  as  we  have  already 
shown,  applying  neither  to  the  Jewish  dispensation,  nor  literally 
to  the  Christian,  must  be  considered  as  a  figurative  representation 
of  the  latter ;  he  was  inspired  to  utter  these  words  :  "  And  it 
shall  be,  that  upon  the  eighth  day,  and  so  forward,  the  priests 
shall  make  your  burnt-offerings  upon  the  altar,  and  your  peace- 
offerings  •  and  I  will  accept  you,  saith  the  Lord  God."2  Here  we 
have  a  day,  a  weekly  day,  and  the  eighth  day,  not  the  eighth  day 
of  a  week  of  eight  days,  but  the  eighth  day  in  reference  to  the 
ancient,  then  common,  and  still  prevalent  week,  the  day  after  ite 

i  Is*.  Ixvi.  23.  2  Ezek.  xliii.  27. 


548  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

seventh  day  ;  in  other  words,  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Two 
facts  are  unquestionable  :  first,  that  the  seventh  day  of  the  Jews 
has  never  been  the  generally  recognised  day  of  rest  and  worship 
among  Christians  ;  and,  second,  that  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
frequently  by  the  Fathers  called  the  eighth  day,  has  ever  been  the 
Christian  Sabbath,  The  theories,  therefore,  which  propound  re 
spectively  an  "  every-day  Sabbath,"  a  "  no-day  Sabbath,"  "  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,"  "  a  half-day,  or  a  two-or-three-hours'  Sab 
bath  each  week,"  do  not  agree  with  the  predictions  to  which 
we  have  referred,  and  are  on  this,  as  they  are  on  other  grounds, 
excluded  from  the  right  to  compete  for  the  honour  of  being  Divine 
institutions. 

Further,  Prophecy  defines  the  engagements  of  its  promised 
weekly  holy  day.  That  holy  day  is  not  merely  named  a  Sabbath, 
a  rest ;  but  has  concomitants  of  duty  which  are  incompatible  alike 
with  idleness  and  with  secular  pursuits.  It  was  to  be  a  day  of  wor 
ship.  They  "  shall  come  and  worship  before  me  ;"  "  I  will  make 
them  joyful  in  my  house  of  prayer  ;"  "  It  shall  come  to  pass  in 
the  last  days,  that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  esta 
blished  in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be  exalted  above 
the  hills  ;  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it.  And  many  people 
shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of 
the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and  he  will  teach  us 
of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths  :  for  out  of  Zion  shall 
go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem.  "1 
Here;  again,  the  every-day  Sabbath  is  shown  to  be  contrary  to 
Scripture  prediction,  as  it  is  to  Scripture  rule.  A  Sabbath  of 
worldly  pleasure  and  amusement  has  no  place  assigned  to  it 
under  Christianity.  A  Sabbath  devoted  in  whole  or  in  part  to 
the  study  of  science  and  art  is  not  provided  for.  Christians  were 
to  be  made  joyful,  but  it  was  to  be  in  the  house  of  prayer,  and 
were  not  to  do  their  own  pleasure  on  God's  holy  day.  They 
were  to  be  occupied  in  studying  nobler  and  more  important  things 
than  science  or  art.  Popery  has  fulfilled  the  Sabbatic  predictions 
of  Scripture  in  some  respects,  but  not  in  the  amount  of  time,  not 
in  intelligent  devotion,  not  in  religious  instruction.  The  Scripture 
is  fulfilled  by  those  only  who  devote  the  weekly  holy  day,  with 


THEORIES  TRIED.  549 

the  exception  of  so  much  time  as  is  due  to  the  objects  of  necessity 
and  mercy,  entirely  to  rest  and  religion. 

Prophecy,  which  indicates  the  means,  indicates  also  the  man 
ner  of  worship  in  Christian  times.  A  blessing  is  pronounced  on 
the  man  who  should  not  only  keep  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it, 
"  but  keep  his  hand  from  doing  any  evil."1  In  the  same  chap 
ter,  promises  of  better  blessings  and  higher  honours  than  those  of 
this  world  are  made  to  those  who  should  keep  God's  Sabbaths, 
and  choose  the  things  that  please  Him,  among  which  things  are 
"loving-kindness,  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  earth  :"  for 
"  in  these  things,"  He  declares,  "  I  delight  ;"  and  to  "  the  sons 
of  the  stranger,"  the  Gentiles,  "  that  join  themselves  to  the  Lord, 
to  serve  him,  and  to  love  the  name  of  the  Lord,  to  be  his  ser 
vants,  every  one  that,  keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it,  and 
taketh  hold  of  my  covenant,"  it  is  pledged  that  they  should  be 
made  joyful,  and  be  accepted  in  their  worship,  by  Jehovah.  In 
another  chapter  (Iviii.)  we  are  informed  that  the  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  was  to  consist  not  only  in  turning  away  the  foot 
from  the  Sabbath,  from  doing  one's  pleasure  on  God's  holy  day, 
but  in  calling  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honour 
able.  The  doctrines  of  an  "  every-day  Sabbath,"  of  « the  Sab 
bath  as  an  ecclesiastical  or  political  arrangement,"  or  of  the 
Sabbath  as  a  clay  that  may  be  given  partly  to  pleasure  or  busi 
ness,  and  partly  to  religion,  are  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the 
standard  of  excellence  thus  presented.  It  is  only  the  doctrine 
of  a  solemn  and  yet  benignant  statute,  of  a  careful,  conscientious, 
and  yet  cheerful,  affectionate  Sabbatism,  that,  according  to  the 
words  of  Scripture,  fulfils  the  claims  of  the  institution.  It  is 
the  Puritan's  and  Covenanter's  holy  day,  not  the  Continental 
holiday,  that  copies  the  Divine  model,  and  it  is  just  in  propor 
tion  as  this  is  done,  that  the  man  is  happy. 

Pledges  of  happiness,  prosperity,  and  honour,  are  given  to  the 
individual  who  thus  hallows  the  day  of  rest.  "  Blessed  is  the 
man  that  keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it."  "  Every  one  " 
that  did  so  was  to  be  "  made  joyful."  "  A  place  and  a  name  " 
"  better  than  of  sons  and  daughters,"  "  an  everlasting  name," 
were  to  be  given  to  all  such  persons.  Ho  that  delighted  in  the 

i  Isa.  Ivt  2. 

24* 


550  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

Sabbath,  and  honoured  God,  not  doing  his  own  ways,  or  finding 
his  own  pleasure,  or  speaking  his  own  words,  was  to  delight  him 
self  in  the  Lord.  And  we  have  found,  accordingly,  when  point 
ing  out  "  the  advantages  "  of  the  institution,  that  it  brings  good 
in  every  form  to  the  individual  who  duly  observes  it,  good  to  his 
body  and  mind,  to  his  moral  and  religious  character,  to  his  cir 
cumstances  and  name.  The  experience  of  the  conscientious  ob 
servers  of  the  Lord's  day,  attests  the  faithfulness  of  Him  who 
promises  thus  to  reward  his  servants.  Those  certainly  who  have 
made  frequent  use  of  an  instrument  are  competent  to  speak  of  its 
worth,  and  if,  besides  being  men  of  known  veracity,  their  evidence 
of  its  efficiency  is  such  as  every  one  may  see  in  their  case  and  try 
in  his  own,  their  testimony  must  be  unexceptionable.  Few  have 
been  more  qualified  by  both  character  and  profession  to  pronounce 
a  correct  judgment  respecting  the  value  of  the  Sabbath  than  the 
distinguished  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  whose  views,  besides,  were  the 
result  of  careful  attention  to  the  subject,  and  confirmed  by  the 
experience  of  a  long  life.  "  I  have,"  are  his  words,  "  by  long 
and  sound  experience  found,  that  the  due  observance  of  this  day, 
and  of  the  duties  of  it,  have  been  of  singular  comfort  and  advan 
tage  to  me  ;  and  I  doubt  not  but  it  will  prove  so  to  you.  God 
Almighty  is  the  Lord  of  our  time,  and  lends  it  to  us  ;  and  as  it 
is  but  just  that  we  should  consecrate  this  part  of  that  time  to 
him,  so  I  have  found,  by  a  strict  and  diligent  observation,  that  a 
due  observation  of  this  day  hath  ever  had  joined  to  it  a  blessing 
upon  the  rest  of  my  time,  and  the  week  that  hath  been  so  begun, 
hath  been  blessed  and  prosperous  to  me  ;  and  on  the  other  side, 
when  I  have  been  negligent  of  the  duties  of  this  day,  the  rest  of 
the  week  hath  been  unsuccessful  and  unhappy  to  my  own  secular 
employments  ;  so  that  I  could  easily  make  an  estimate  of  my 
successes  in  my  own  secular  employments  the  week  following,  by 
the  manner  of  my  passing  of  this  day  :  and  this  I  do  not  write 
lightly  or  inconsiderately,  but  upon  a  long  and  sound  observation 
and  experience."1  Similar  was  the  experience  of  a  lawyer  of 
great  talents,  who  on  his  death-bed  said  to  his  friend,  "  Charge 
every  young  lawyer  not  to  do  anything  in  the  business  of  his  pro 
fession  on  the  Sabbath.  It  will  injure  him,  and  lessen  the  pro- 

*  Contemplations  (Lond.  1676),  pp.  480,  481. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  551 

spect  of  his  success.  I  have  tried  it.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is, 
but  there  is  something  about  it  very  striking.  My  Sabbath  efforts 
have  always  failed." l  We  find  the  same  experience,  in  the 
medical  profession,  expressed  by  Dr.  Farre,  Mr.  Hey,  and,  as  has 
been  said,  by  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments,  Boerhaave.  Per 
sons  invested  with  the  sacred  office  have  felt  in  the  same  way. 
"  I  never  find  it  well,"  was  the  remark  of  Dr.  Doddridge,  "  OB 
common  days,  when  it  is  not  so  on  the  Lord's."2  To  the  like 
conclusion,  "  that  there  was  a  special  blessing  vouchsafed  to  the 
keeping  of  that  day  devoted  to  spiritual  purposes,"  was  Mr. 
Wilberforce  led  in  his  different  field  of  labour  ;3  and  he  relates 
that  he  remained  at  home  one  Sabbath  to  write  a  letter  to  the 
Emperor  Alexander  on  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  conceiving 
it  to  be  his  duty,  and  even  supplicating  the  Divine  blessing  on 
the  act,  "  yet  it  did  not  answer,"  he  observes  ;  "  my  mind  felt  a 
weight  on  it,  a  constraint  which  impeded  the  free  and  unfettered 
movements  of  the  imagination  or  intellect  ;  and  I  am  sure  that 
this  last  week  I  might  have  saved  for  that  work  four  times  as 
much  time  as  I  assigned  to  it  on  Sunday.' ' 4  The  instances  in 
which  mercantile  men,  sailors,  tradesmen,  and  mechanics,  have 
been  sensible  of  a  connexion  between  their  use  of  the  day  of  rest, 
and  their  success  in  their  several  undertakings,  are  too  numerous 
for  detail.  We  select  one.  The  learned  and  enterprising  Captain 
Scoresby,  in  an  account  of  one  of  his  whaling  expeditions,  makes 
the  following  remarks  :  "  It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  in  no 
instance,  when  on  fishing  stations,  was  our  refraining  from  the 
ordinary  duties  of  our  profession  on  the  Sunday  ever  supposed 
eventually  to  have  been  a  loss  to  us,  for  we  in  general  found,  that 
if  others  who  were  less  regardful,  or  had  not  the  same  view  of 
the  obligatory  nature  of  the  command  respecting  the  Sabbath-day, 
succeeded  in  their  endeavours  to  promote  the  success  of  the  voy 
age,  we  seldom  failed  to  procure  a  decided  advantage  in  the  suc 
ceeding  week.  Independently,  indeed,  of  the  Divine  blessing  on 
honouring  the  Sabbath-day,  I  found  that  the  restraint  put  upon 
the  natural  inclination  of  the  men  for  pursuing  the  fishery  at  all 
opportunities,  acted  with  some  advantage,  by  proving  an  extraor- 

1  Permanent  Safyath  Documents,  No.  4,  p.  51.  *  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  292. 

*  Memoirs  by  Orton,  2d  ed.  p.  23«,  n.  *  lAfe,  vol.  iv.  p.  179. 


552  THE  SABBATH  DEPENDED. 

dinary  stimulus  to  their  exertions  when  they  were  next  sent  cut 
after  whales.  Were  it  not  out  of  place  here,  I  could  relate  several 
instances,  in  which,  after  refraining  to  fish  upon  the  Sabbath,  while 
others  were  thus  successfully  employed,  our  subsequent  labours  suc 
ceeded  under  circumstances  so  striking,  that  there  was  not,  I  be 
lieve,  a  man  in  the  ship  who  did  not  consider  it  the  effect  of  the 
Divine  blessing."1 

In  the  same  ancient  document,  in  which  a  blessing  is  pro 
nounced  on  the  individual  observer  of  the  sacred  day,  are  benefits 
assured  to  the  Sabbath-keeping  community.  Such  a  community 
was  to  ride  on  the  high  places  of  the  earth.2  And  it  has  been 
shown  that  the  tendency  and  actual  results  of  national  respect  for 
the  weekly  day  of  rest  and  devotion  have  been  most  beneficial  to 
all  the  interests  of  society.  Britain  and  America,  the  countries 
in  which  that  day  is  most  sacredly  regarded,  do  indeed  verify  the 
language  of  the  prophet,  and  realize  the  promised  pre-eminence 
among  the  nations.  Let  the  confession  of  M.  de  Montalembert, 
already  cited,3  bear  a  just  testimony  to  the  truth  of  prophecy  re 
specting  the  Sabbath,  and  thereby  to  the  Divine  original  of  the 
appointment.  Let  the  following  words  of  other  foreigners  confirm 
his  judgment,  and  conduct  us  to  the  conclusion  which  so  many 
facts  in  the  preceding  pages  conspire  to  establish.  "Impartial 
men,"  says  one,  "  are  convinced  that  the  political  education  by 
which  the  lower  classes  of  the  English  nation  surpass  other 
nations — that  the  extraordinary  wealth  of  England,  and  its 
supreme  maritime  power — are  clear  proofs  of  the  blessing  of  God 
bestowed  upon  this  nation  for  its  distinguished  Sabbath  observance. 
Those  who  behold  the  enormous  commerce  of  England,  in  the 
harbours,  the  railways,  the  manufactories,  etc.,  cannot  see  without 
astonishment  the  quiet  of  the  Sabbath-day."4  Another  says  : 
11  Amongst  the  French  whom  the  Great  Exhibition  has  brought  to 
London,  there  are  some  who  are  usefully  impressed  with  the  quiet 
and  order  which  reign  on  the  Sunday  in  the  capital  of  Great 
Britain.  I  know  a  Roman  Catholic  politician,  formerly  Minister 
under  Louis  Philippe,  who  has  been  singularly  struck  by  this. 

1  Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  the  Northern  Whole,  Fishery  (Edin.  1823),  382,  383,  and  cots. 
1  Isa  Iviii.  13,  14.     See  also  Jer.  xvii.  24,  25.  3  Page  250. 

*  IW.igimis  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  469.  • 


THEORIES  TRIED.  553 

He  said,  a  few  days  ago,  to  one  of  my  acquaintance,  who  repeated 
it  to  me,  that  if  it  were  possible  to  lead  the  French  to  pass  their 
Sunday  like  the  English,  much  would  be  gained  for  the  repose  of 
the  mind,  which  would  act  as  a  moral  preservative  upon  the  soul." 
The  writer  states  that,  in  addressing  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hun 
dred  persons  at  the  Oratoire  in  Paris,  on  the  29th  of  June  1851, 
he  remarked  as  follows  :  "  It  is  but  three  weeks  ago  that  he  who 
now  addresses  you  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel,  in  the 
capital  of  Great  Britain.  He  saw  there  a  wonder  greater  than  that 
of  the  immense  and  magnificent  Crystal  Palace,  which  encloses,  aa 
it  were,  the  epitome  and  compendium  of  all  the  industrial  trea 
sures  of  the  known  world ;  he  saw  a  free,  a  peaceful,  a  happy 
people,  moving  forward,  without  hindrance,  and  without  revolu 
tion,  in  the  path  of  progressive  improvement,  loving  their  laws, 
loving  their  Government,  respecting  authority,  rich,  prosperous 
in  all  their  concerns.  Would  you  know  why,  my  brethren  ?  It 
is  especially,  and  above  all,  because  they  are  a  people  who  know 
and  invoke,  at  least  among  the  majority  of  their  members,  the 
God  that  I  preach  to  you ;  it  is  because  public  worship  is  there 
offered  in  His  temples  ;  it  is  because  the  day  which  is  consecrated 
to  Him  is  religiously  observed ;  it  is  because  His  Word  is  read, 
and  prayer  is  offered  in  the  family  ;  it  is  because  that  people  are 
convinced  that  Jehovah  reigns,  and  that  there  is  no  happiness  for 
a  nation,  as  there  is  none  for  a  family  or  for  an  individual,  but 
in  the  love  of  His  Word  and  obedience  to  His  commandments. 
'  Happy  is  the  nation,'  says  the  prophet,  '  whose  God  is  the 
Lord.'"1 

The  universal  prevalence  of  a  day  of  rest  and  worship  is  fore 
shown  in  the  sacred  oracles.  There  are  declarations  which  sup 
pose  that  some  time  everywhere  is  to  be  religiously  occupied  :  "  All 
the  ends  of  the  world  shall  remember,  and  turn  unto  the  Lord  : 
and  all  the  kindreds  of  the  nations  shall  worship  before  thee.  For 
the  kingdom  is  the  Lord's ;  and  he  is  the  governor  among  the 
nations."2  "From  the  rising  of  the  sun,  even  unto  the  going 
down  of  the  same,  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles  y 
and  in  every  place  incense  shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a 
pure  offering  :  for  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  heathen, 

i  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,,  pp.  305,  806.  «  Ps.  xxii  27  28. 


554  THE  SABBATH  DEFENDED. 

saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."1  But  not  only  is  there  to  be  universal 
worship,  but  a  seventh  proportion  of  time,  and  a  particular  day, 
are  to  the  same  extent  to  be  consecrated  to  sacred  purposes.  In 
confirmation  of  our  statement,  we  again  quote  these  words  :  "  From 
one  Sabbath  to  another  shall  all  flesh  come  and  worship  before 
me,  saith  the  Lord." 2  "It  shall  be,  that  upon  the  eighth  day," — 
the  first  day  of  the  week, — "and  so  forward,  the  priests  shall 
make  your  burnt-offerings  upon  the  altar,  and  your  peace-offerings  ; 
and  I  will  accept  you,  saith  the  Lord  God."3  Although  these  pre 
dictions  are  not  yet  fulfilled,  they  have  not  failed,  as  the  time  for 
their  accomplishment,  fixed  and  declared  in  the  same  record,  is 
still  future.  The  conversion  of  the  Jews,  and  the  removal  of  a 
professedly  Christian  but  corrupt  system,  must  take  place,  it  is 
intimated,  before  the  true  religion  can  be  universal.  As  so  great 
an  enterprise  as  tlie  regeneration  of  the  world  requires  much  time, 
we  might  presume  that  there  would  be  evidence  of  its  gradual  pro 
gress.  What,  then,  is  the  religion  that  has  for  the  longest  period 
maintained  its  ground,  and  at  the  same  time,  by  present  appear 
ances,  promises  to  take  possession  of  the  earth  ?  Only  the  reli 
gion  which  fully  recognises  the  perpetual  and  the  sacred  weekly 
rest.  Paganism,  with  its  unenlightening,  uncheering,  bloody  rites, 
whether  annual,  monthly,  or  even  weekly,  everywhere  yields  to 
Christianity  and  civilisation.  Mohammedanism,  with  its  ineffi 
cient  Friday,  is  on  the  wane.  Popery  has  been  a  long-continued 
proof  of  the  ignorance,  immorality,  and  pauperism,  which  holy-days, 
with  superstition  and  without  the  gospel,  inflict  on  society  ;  and 
totters  to  its  fall.  Socinianism,  depending  on  the  merely  human 
both  for  its  heartless  Christianity  and  its  cold  Sabbath,  shows 
itself  unable  to  extend  or  even  to  maintain  itself.  The  Friends, 
who  are  not  all  Gurneys  or  Clarksons  as  to  the  Sabbath,  date  their 
denominational  existence  so  late  as  from  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  by  1852  numbered  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  only  from  18,000  to  20,000.  The  seventh-day  Sabbatists 
have  ever  been  a  small  body.  The  every-day  Sabbatists  have 
hitherto  been  not  only  few,  but  far  between.  And  the  friends  of 
a  merely  ecclesiastical  or  political  holy  day  have  never  done  much 
to  bless  the  world,  and,  happily,  not  much  more  to  extend  their 

i  Mai.  i.  I1  2  Isa.  Ixvi.  23.  «  Ezek.  xliii.  27. 


THEORIES  TRIED.  555 

faith.  There  is  but  one  class  of  religionists  who  make  steady 
progress,  and  these  are  Christians  who  believe  in  a  Divine,  per 
manent,  holy  Sabbath.  These  have  their  missions,  their  converts, 
their  sacredly  observed  Lord's  day  in  every  part  of  the  world, — 
tokens  that  they  are  fulfilling  the  ancient  oracles  of  a  blessed  and 
extended  Sabbatisin,  and  that  men  of  like  views  who  shall  come 
after  them  are  destined  to  realize  the  completed  purpose  and  boon. 
Thus  the  terms  of  prophecy  respecting  the  Sabbath  of  Chris 
tianity  have  been  fulfilled  only  by  the  theory  which  recognises  the 
first  day  of  the  week  as  consecrated  by  Dfvine  authority  to  sacred 
rest  and  service.  While  other  theories,  when  tried  by  this  test, 
are  found  wanting,  that  which  has  been  generally  received  and 
practised  by  Christians  proves  itself  to  be  of  God,  and  destined  to 
continue  to  the  end  of  time,  as  well  as  to  be  universal  in  the 
earth. 


556  THE  SABBATH  ENFOKCED. 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  SABBATH 

PEAOTICALLY  ENFORCED. 


DESECRATION  OF  THE  SABBATH ITS  NATUKE. 

IT  has  been  indiscriminately  and  confidently  affirmed  that  the 
Jews  were  required  to  keep  the  Sabbath  with  a  strictness  which 
is  not  demanded  of  Christians.  It  is  true  that  the  institution  as 
belonging  to  the  Mosaic  economy  involved  more  physical  labour 
than  is  now  necessary,  and  that  its  judicial  penalty  imparted  to  it 
a  severity  which  is  not  congenial  to  the  free  spirit  of  Christianity. 
But  with  the  exception  of  such  circumstances — which  belonged  to 
a  temporary  economy,  to  the  accidents  not  the  substance  of  the 
Sabbatic  law — we  are  under  that  law  as  much  as  the  Jews  were. 
It  has  not  modified  to  Christians  the  other  precepts  of  the  De 
calogue  that  they  too  have  been  detached  from  the  Levitical  cere 
monies  and  the  political  law  of  Judaism.  iSTo  one  will  affirm 
that  a  Christian  is  not  to  be  as  strictly  obedient  to  parents,  or  as 
rigidly  truthful  and  honest  in  his  dealings,  as  was  the  Jew.  The 
prohibition  to  the  latter  of  going  out  of  his  place  on  the  seventh 
day,  refers  to  the  unnecessary  work  of  gathering  manna,  on  that 
day.  The  law  forbidding  the  kindling  of  a  fire  on  the  Sabbath 
must,  from  its  connexion  with  the  account  of  the  rearing  of  the 
tabernacle,  and  from  our  Lord's  exposition  of  the  Fourth  Command 
ment,  in  which  he  vindicates  the  performance  of  works  of  necessity 
and  mercy  on  the  day  of  rest,  be  understood  of  such  an  action  as 
had  respect  to  secular  work,  or  as  was  not  indispensable.  The 
Jews,  no  doubt,  made  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  rigorous  by  their 
additions  to  its  requirements,  but  we  are  to  take  our  views  of 


DESECRATION NATUEE.  557 

Sabbatical  duties  from  the  Bible,  and  not  from  the  opinions  or 
practices  of  its  corrupters.  The  privileges  of  Christians  are  greater 
than  those  of  the  ancients  ;  but  as  it  would  be  no  privilege  to  be 
less  truthful  and  honest  than  they  were  required  to  be,  so  it 
would  be  no  blessing,  whether  for  body  or  soul,  to  have  the  day 
of  sacred  rest  abridged.  The  addition  which  Christianity  makes 
to  our  privileges  is  designed  and  fitted  to  raise  us  to  closer  con 
formity  to  the  demands  of  the  law.  It  is  never  the  exactness  of 
compliance  with  the  letter  of  any  law  that  the  Scriptures  condemn, 
but  attention  to  the  mere  letter — the  form  without  the  power  of 
godliness. 

Having  set  forth  so  fully  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath,  it  is  not 
necessary  that  we  should  enlarge  on  those  omissions  and  acts  by 
which  the  institution  is  profaned.  We  will  do  little  more  than 
name  them  as  they  are  admirably  presented  in  the  Westminster 
Shorter  Catechism.  The  Sabbath  is  profaned  by  the  omission  of 
its  duties.  If  the  house  of  God  be  forsaken,  if  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  the  public  celebration  of  Divine  praise,  and  the  offer 
ing  of  prayer,  collecting  for  the  poor,  observing  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  the  cultivation  of  domestic  and  personal  piety  be  neglected, 
not  only  are  these  ordinances  and  claims  of  our  religion  set  at 
nought,  but  the  day  of  the  Lord* is  not  devoted  to  some  of  its 
most  sacred  and  important  objects.  The  day  is  profaned  by  idle 
ness.  To  take  advantage  of  its  leisure  for  doing  nothing,  is  to 
pervert  the  day  of  Him  who  rose  early  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  and,  both  before  and  after  his  resurrection,  redeemed  in 
holy  and  beneficent  works  the  season  sacred  to  the  immediate  ser 
vice  of  God.  The  Lord's  day  is  profaned  by  the  careless  perform 
ance  of  its  duties.  All  these  should  be  performed  with  the  vigour 
and  ardour  which  love  and  delight  inspire,  and  not  in  the  spirit 
and  manner  thus  described  :  "  Behold,  what  a  weariness  is  it  I"1 
"  When  will  the  new  moon  be  gone,  that  we  may  sell  corn  '?  and 
the  Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat  ?" 2  The  Lord's  day  is 
profaned  by  the  doing  on  it  of  anything  which  is  in  itself  sinful. 
Whatever  the  sin — intemperance  or  theft,  for  example — it  is  made 
double  by  being  perpetrated  on  that  day.  "  Moreover,  this  they 
have  done  unto  me  ;  they  have  defiled  my  sanctuary  in  the  same 

i  Mai.  i.  12,  «*  uq.  *  Ainos  via".  4.  b 


558  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

day,  and  have  profaned  my  Sabbaths.  For  when  they  had  slain 
their  children  to  their  idols,  then  they  came  the  same  day  into  my 
sanctuary  to  profane  it ;  and,  lo,  thus  have  they  done  in  the  midst 
of  mine  house."1  The  Lord's  day  is  profaned  by  unnecessary 
thoughts  about  secular  matters.  The  people  of  Israel  are  blamed 
because  their  hearts  on  the  Sabbath  and  in  the  sanctuary  went  after 
their  covetousness..  We  are  not  to  find  our  own  pleasure  on  that 
day  ;  these  things  "  choke  the  word,"  interfere  with  every  spiritual 
exercise  and  enjoyment,  and  are  offensive  to  Him  who  demands 
our  whole  attention  and  interest  on  His  own  day.  And  he  who 
has  faith  in  God  will  comply  with  His  requirement,  casting  all 
his  care  upon  Him,  and  seeking  his  happiness  in  the  things  that 
are  above.  The  Lord's  day  is  profaned  by  unnecessary  words  about 
the  world.  "Not  speaking  thine  own  words."  This  "honours 
the  Lord."2  And  the  Lord's  day  is  profaned  by  unnecessary 
secular  work.  Not  doing  our  own  ways  on  that  day  honours 
Jehovah.3 

SABBATH  DESECRATION  AT  HOME. 

It  is  the  confession  of  foreigners,  as  we  have  before  noticed, 
that  in  no  country,  except  it  may  be  America  in  some  places,  is 
the  Lord's  day  so  well  observed  as  in  our  own.  But  to  compare 
the  state  of  Sabbath  observance  with  that  of  other  lands,  and  not 
with  the  standard  of  piety  and  morals  in  the  Scriptures,  and  to 
rest  satisfied-  with  our  condition,  would  not  be  wise.  While 
others,  judging  of  us  by  themselves,  bestow  commendation,  we, 
estimating  ourselves  by  "the  law  and  the  testimony,"  shall  see  so 
much  in  our  own  conduct  to  condemn  as  ought  to  fill  us  with 
shame  on  account  of  our  transgressions  of  the  Divine  law.  And 
as  this  volume  is  especially  intended  for  the  good  of  our  own 
countrymen,  it  is  proper  to  be  more  particular  in  the  scrutiny  of 
our  errors  than  we  should  deem  necessary  in  searching  into  those 
of  our  neighbours. 

The  Lord's  day  is  extensively  desecrated  in  this  country  by  secu 
lar  labour.  We  should  be  very  inconsiderate  or  ungrateful  if  we 
did  not  cordially  acknowledge  the  manifold  advantages  enjoyed  by 

i  Ezek.  xxiii.  38,  39.  '  Isa.  IviiL  13.  *  Hid. 


DESECRATION EXTENT.  559 

• 

us  under  the  British  Government,  and  the  benefit  which  it  has 
done  to  the  Sabbath  cause  by  its  resistance  of  attempts  to  assimi 
late  its  character  to  that  of  the  Continent.  But  one  of  the  ex 
pressions  of  right  feeling  towards  our  rulers  is  to  show  them 
wherein  they  err.  And  it  is  under  the  influence  of  this  feeling, 
we  trust,  that  we  must  condemn  any  measure  of  theirs  by  which 
the  law  of  a  higher  power  is  transgressed.  We  will  advert  to  two 
forms  in  which  they  are  accessory  to  the  infraction  of  the  Divine 
law  by  patronizing  secular  labour  on  the  holy  Sabbath. 

One  is  in  the  department  of  Police.  The  Metropolitan  and  City 
Police  Force  form  a  large  body,  who,  although  appointed  to  be 
guardians  of  property  and  of  the  public  peace,  in  general  "  live 
almost  without  regard  to  religion  or  thought  of  another  world,  few 
if  any  of  them  enjoying  at  any  time  an  uninterrupted  Sabbath." 
Measures  were  adopted  some  years  ago  for  securing  the  presence 
at  Divine  service,  upon  the  Lord's  day,  of  those  of  them  who  were 
not  on  duty,  but  no  means  of  this  nature  will  avail  so  long  as  the 
number  of  men  is  so  inadequate  to  the  amount  of  the  duty  to  be 
done.  It  is  certainly  most  unjust  to  these  servants  of  the  public, 
and  most  impolitic,  as  all  wrong  must  be,  to  commit  to  them  an 
amount  of  service  which  precludes  a  due  attention  on  their  part  to 
their  moral  and  religious  interests. 

The  other  form  in  which  the  Divine  law  is  set  aside  by  the  law 
of  man  in  this  land  is  in  the  business  which  is  authorized  to  be 
done  on  the  Sabbath  in  the  department  of  the  Post-Office,  involv 
ing  thousands  of  persons  in  multifarious  labours  connected  with 
the  running  of  mails,  and  the  sorting,  despatching,  and  delivery  of 
letters,  not  to  mention  a  far  greater  number  who  by  these  means 
are  induced  to  occupy  themselves  in  the  reading  and  writing  of 
letters,  and  the  reading  of  newspapers  on  the  Lord's  day.  To  this 
may  be  added  the  labour  which  the  system  produces  as  acted  on 
in  the  Colonies. 

It  is  truly  gratifying  to  reflect  that  there  is  a  considerable,  we 
trust  a  growing  number  of  our  nobility  and  gentry,  who  esteem  it 
their  highest  honour  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  Most  High,  but  with 
too  many  the  Lord's  day  is  the  selected  time  for  travelling  or  for 
entertainments,  and  forms  no  exception  to  the  parade  with  which 
they  appear  in  the  scenes  of  public  resort.  For  their  convenience 


560  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

0 

and  pleasure  the  labours  of  thousands,  whom  the  preceding  week 
has  sufficiently  employed  and  exhausted,  must  be  drawn  upon,  to 
the  abridgement  of  liberty  and  life,  and  to  the  ruin  of  the  soul. 

Medical  men,  it  is  admitted,  are  occasionally  under  the  neces 
sity  of  practising  their  art  on  this  day.  But  how  many  calls  are 
made,  prescriptions  written,  and  surgical  operations  performed, 
which  might  have  been  arranged  to  occur  on  another  day  !  Some 
of  our  best-employed  and  ablest  practitioners  have  guided  their 
affairs  with  such  discretion  and  diligence  as  to  admit  of  their  regu 
lar  attendance  in  the  house  of  prayer.  It  is  sad  that  persons  who 
so  well  know  the  need  which  the  physical  system  has  of  a  periodi 
cal  rest  should  act  in  opposition  to  their  knowledge,  and  in  viola 
tion  of  their  own  rules  ;  and  that,  familiar  with  disease  and  death, 
they  should  lose  the  best  season  for  pondering  their  own  coming 
change,  and  teach  others  to  go  and  do  likewise. 

There  are  many  of  the  legal  profession  to  whom  the  Sabbath 
brings  no  rest.  Forgetful  of  the  law  of  God,  their  care  is  to  study 
the  rules  of  human  jurisprudence,  and  the  laws  of  the  land.  When 
they  ought  to  be  making  ready  for  the  last  assize,  and  securing 
the  inheritance  that  fadeth  not  away,  they  are  too  often  engaged 
in  preparing  to  plead  before  an  earthly  tribunal,  or  in  examining 
the  titles  to  property  that  must  soon  paes  from  the  possessors  into 
other  hands.  Important  transactions  in  themselves,  but  wofully 
mistimed  !  UI  do  not  think,"  said  a  Scottish  lawyer,  when  ex 
amined  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  -of  Commons,  "  that  in 
Edinburgh  there  are  any  who  transact  as  much  business  on  Sun 
day  as  on  other  days ;  but  there  are  many,  I  believe,  who  do 
carry  on  business,  more  or  less,  upon  that  day.  I  know  at  the 
same  time  that  there  is  a  proportion  who  decline  business  on  that 
day."1 

Even  the  ministers  of  religion  themselves  may  not  be  found 
blameless  in  this  matter.  It  is  possible  that  as  the  physicians  of 
the  body  avail  themselves  of  their  professional  liberty  to  labour 
unnecessarily  on  the  day  of  rest,  so  the  physicians  of  the  soul  may 
take  improper  advantage  of  the  maxim,  that  "  on  the  Sabbath- 
days  the  priests  in  the  temple  profane  the  Sabbath,  and  are  blame 
less."  2  Is  there  no  unnecessary  travelling  tc  fulfil  sacred  appcint- 

1  Report  on  the  SaVoaihfor  1832,  p.  201.  a  Matt  xii.  5. 


DESECRATION EXTENT.  561 

ments  1  Are  there  no  studies,  which,  though  their  subjects  are 
theological,  are  as  really  secular  labours  as  the  studies  of  law  or 
science  1  And  have  there  not  been  Protestant  as  well  as  Roman 
Catholic  clergymen,  who,  when  they  have  dropped  their  canoni 
cals,  have  shouldered  their  fowling-pieces  or  other  implements  of 
to-morrow's  sport  1 

Judging  from  the  biographies  and  writings  of  men  of  science 
and  literature,  it  appears  that  not  a  few  of  them  make  little  dis 
tinction  between  God's  time  and  their  own. 

How  much  prostitution  of  sacred  time  is  involved  in  the  labours 
of  the  newspaper  press  may  be  in  some  degree  estimated  if  we 
bear  in  mind  the  fact,  that  there  is  a  circulation  of  eighteen 
millions  of  newspapers  which  leads  in  one  way  or  another  to  the 
desecration  of  the  Lord's  day.1 

The  most  numerous  class  of  persons,  however,  who  are  charge 
able  with  doing  habitual  dishonour  to  the  Sabbath  are  those  who 
are  engaged  in  trade  of  various  kinds  on  the  day,  and  those  who 
spend  it  in  idleness,  recreation,  and  pleasure.  Referring  to  Baylee 
and  other  writers  for  the  statistics  on  these  points,  we  can  only 
add  a  few  words  to  show  the  extent  of  Sabbath  desecration  in  this 
country.  As  the  results  of  an  exact  calculation  made  in  some  of 
the  largest  towns  in  England,  it  is  found  that  in  place  of  five-eighths 
of  the  population  repairing  regularly  to  places  of  worship,  as  would 
be  the  proportion  so  employed  were  religion  in  a  healthy  condi 
tion,  the  case  is  nearly  the  reverse.  Out  of  a  population,  for  ex 
ample,  of  30,000,  the  number  absent  for  good  reasons  would  be 
11,000,  and  the  number  in  attendance  ought  to  be  19,000  ;  but 
only  10,000  are  found  in  the  house  of  God,  while  20,000  live 
in  the  constant  neglect  of  this  part  of  their  duty.  In  London,  the 
proportion  of  absentees  is  not  so  great,  but  the  absolute  number 
may  be  reckoned  at  the  enormous  amount  of  650,000.  In  Edin 
burgh,  according  to  a  late  City  Mission  Report,  there  are  localities 
where  two-thirds  of  the  people  live  in  the  neglect  of  Divine  or 
dinances,  and  others  where  the  proportion  is  still  greater,  the 
number  altogether  of  those  who  are  living  in  this  manner  being 
60,000.  In  the  smaller  towns,  and  in  rural  districts,  the  people 
have  not  in  such  numbers  cast  off  the  fear  of  God.  According  to 

i  Baylee'?.  Statistics,  p.  8. 
•2   H 


562  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

the  census  of  1851,  5,288,294  are  absent  every  Sunday  from  the 
house  of  God. 

This  fearful  extent  of  ungodliness  is  chargeable  in  different 
measures  on  all  classes  of  the  community.  Much  of  it  belongs 
to  persons  of  rank,  to  professional  men,  to  merchants,  clerks,  and 
others.  But  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  evil  attaches  to  the 
labouring  population.  In  the  Report  for  1849  of  the  London 
City  Mission,  we  are  informed  that  "  the  neglect  of  public  wor 
ship  among  the  working  classes  of  the  metropolis,  and  especially 
the  men,  is  .almost  universal."  Similar  and  equally  recent  is  the 
testimony  of  the  Directors  of  the  Edinburgh  City  Mission,  where 
they  say,  "  What  strikes  one  most  is  the  breaking  off  of  the 
working  classes  from  the  public  ordinances  of  Divine  worship, 
their  disregard  and  even  hostility  to  Christian  ministers."  It 
is  stated  of  a  working  man  in  England  that  he  had  made  a  point 
of  learning  how  his  shop-mates  spent  the  Sabbath,  and  that  he 
had  found  that  an  awfully  irreligious  feeling  had  taken  possession 
of  the  minds  of  a  great  majority  of  them,  not  one  in  ten,  and 
sometimes  not  one  in  twenty  attending  a  place  of  worship,  and 
the  majority  looking  down  upon  the  churches  and  chapels  as. 
built  not  for  them,  but  for  the  masters  and  middle  classes  who 
get  their  living  by  oppressing  the  poor  workmen.  This  is  the 
alleged  reason  of  one  class.  But  there  are  many  who  will  tell 
you  that  they  cannot  go  to  church  and  also  cook  their  dinner. 
Yet  there  are  many,  too,  in  the  situation  of  the  dying  boatman, 
who,  when  his  master  endeavoured  to  give  him  religious  instruction 
and  consolation,  observed,  "  You  forced  me  to  break  one  of  God's 
commands,  and  when  I  broke  one,  I  thought  there  was  little  use 
in  trying  to  keep  the  others."1  "In  the  least  unfavourable 
aspect,"  says  Mr.  Mann  in  his  remarks  prefixed  to  his  Report  on 
the  Census  of  1851,  "  and  assuming  that  the  5,288,294  absent 
every  Sunday  are  not  always  the  same  individuals,  it  must  be 
apparent  that  a  sadly  formidable  portion  of  the  English  people 
are  habitual  neglecters  of  the  public  ordinances  of  religion.  JSTor 
is  it  difficult  to  indicate  to  what  class  of  the  community  this 
portion  in  the  main  belongs.  The  middle  classes  have  augmented 
rather  than  diminished  that  -devotional  sentiment  and  strictness  of 

1  Baylce's  Statistics  and  Facts,  p.  65. 


DESECRATION EXTENT.  563 

attention  to  religious  services  by  which,  for  several  centuries, 
they  have  so  eminently  been  distinguished.  With  the  upper 
classes,  too,  the  subject  of  religion  has  obtained  of  late  a  marked 
degree  of  notice  ;  and  a  regular  church  attendance  is  now  ranked 
amongst  the  recognised  proprieties  of  life.  But  while  the  labour 
ing  myriads  of  our  country  have  been  multiplying  with  our  mul 
tiplied  material  prosperity,  it  cannot,  it  is  feared,  be  stated  that  a 
corresponding  increase  has  occurred  in  the  attendance  of  this  class 
in  our  religious  edifices.  More  especially  in  cities  and  large 
towns  it  is  observable  how  absolutely  insignificant  a  portion  of 
the  congregations  is  composed  of  artisans.  This  [secularism]  is 
the  creed  which  probably  with  most  exactness  indicates  the  faith 
which  virtually,  though  not  professedly,  is  entertained  by  the 
masses  of  our  working  population.  They  are  unconscious  secular 
ists,  engrossed  by  the  demands,  the  trials,  or  the  pleasures  of  the 
passing  hour,  and  ignorant  or  careless  of  a  future." 

SABBATH  DESECRATION  ABROAD. 

Although  our  proper  subject  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath  is  treated,  it  may  not  be  altogether  out  of  place 
simply  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  kind  of  Sabbatism  which 
obtains  among  two  classes  who  recognise  in  part  only  the  Divine 
revelation. 

Among  the  Jews  there  is  a  variety  of  practice  in  regard  to 
the  observance  of  their  Sabbath.  Messrs.  M'Cheyne  and  Bonar 
state  that  when  they  visited  Altona,  which  contained  2600  Jews, 
they  found  many  of  their  shops  were  opened  though  it  was  their 
Sabbath.1  They  also  mention  the  following  fact  :  Mr.  Moritz, 
before  his  conversion  from  Judaism,  was  on  a  visit  to  London, 
and  on  inquiring  of  a  Jewess,  in  whose  house  he  lodged,  why 
there  was  such  quietness  in  the  streets  on  a  Lord's  day,  w^as 
answered,  "  The  people  of  England  are  a  God-fearing  people,  and 
if  we  had  kept  our  Sabbath  as  they  keep  theirs,  Messiah  would 
have  come  long  ago."  2  And  yet  it  is  affirmed  that  there  are 
Jews  in  foreign  lands  who  are  more  strict  than  their  English 
brethren  ;  some  going  to  the  extreme  of  observing  the  day  with 

1  Narrative  of  a  Mission  to  the  Jews,  p.  518.  -  Ibid.  p.  512. 


664  THE  SABBATH  ENFOHCED. 

uncommanded  rigour,  and  regarding  even  the  extinguishing  of  a 
fire  as  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath.1 

The  Mohammedans  have  also  their  weekly  Sabbath.  In 
Constantinople,  we  are  told,  it  is  a  day  of  universal  sport  and 
diversion. 

"  Friday,"  says  a  traveller,  "  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Moham 
medans,  as  that  was  the  day  on  which  Adam,  they  say,  was 
made,  and  the  day  on  which  the  resurrection  will  take  place. 
Chria'dans  are  prohibited  from  attending  their  mosques  during 
public  worship,  and  females,  without  being  expressly  forbidden, 
are  ordered  to  pray  at  home  on  the  Sabbath,  which  it  is  alleged 
they  never  do."2 

Turning  to  those  who  profess  themselves  Christians,  we  advert, 
first  of  all,  to  the  Greek  and  other  Eastern  Churches.  How  the 
Sabbath  is  spent  by  the  members  of  the  Greek  Church  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  statements  of  Bremner  :  "  In  Russia 
it  is  impossible  to  escape  being  struck  with  the  way  in  which  the 
Sabbath  is  kept.  People  are  everywhere  busy  at  work  in  the 
fields,  and  the  market-places,  in  all  the  provincial  towns,  are 
crowded  with  peasants  selling  potatoes,  mushrooms,  apples,  tur 
nips,  cucumbers,  etc.,  just  as  on  the  ordinary  week-days.  In 
short,  Sunday  seems  to  be  the  great  fair-day  in  most  parts  of 
Russia."3  Among  the  Nestorians  there  are  various  festivals  in 
which,  as  on  the  Sabbath-day,  they  do  not  labour  ;  but,  as  one 
of  them  said,  ''the  Sabbath-day  we  reckon  far,  far  above  the 
others."  In  the  Armenian  churches  "  there  are  at  least  fourteen 
great  feast-days  in  the  course  of  the  year  in  which  all  ordinary 
labour  is  suspended,  and  the  day  is  more  strictly  observed  than 
the  Sabbath."4 

The  disregard  of  the  true  law  of  the  Lord's  day  is  proverbially 
prevalent  in  all  Roman  Catholic  countries.  The  notorious  prac 
tice  of  the  body  of  Romanists  in  every  region  of  the  earth  where 
they  are  to  be  found  is  to  limit  the  sacred  duties  of  the  day  to  the 
time  of  mass.  The  remaining  hours  are  devoted  to  secular  busi 
ness  or  to  pleasure.  The  desecration  is  various  in  circumstances 

1  The  Jew,  pp.  40,  41.  2  Anderson's  Visit  to  Eastern  Landt,  p.  18. 

8  Excursions  in  Russia,  vol.  ii.  p.  291. 

4  Col«man's  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  Church  (Loud.),  p.  205. 


DESECRATION EXTENT.  565 

and  measure,  but  what  we  have  stated  is  the  usual  character  of 
a  Popish  Sabbath.  It  is  unnecessary,  therefore,  to  fill  our  pages 
with  illustrative  cases.  A  few  may  suffice.  In  Madeira,  when 
the  priest's  voice  is  silenced,  and  the  candles  are  extinguished,  the 
Sabbath  is  over.  Multitudes  parade  the  street  with  guitar  and 
song,  and  the  evening  gathers  in  its  votaries  of  gaming,  and  danc 
ing,  and  folly.  It  is  otherwise  with  the  holiday,  on  which  no  work 
must  be  done,  and  the  churches  are  full.  Thus  there  is  idleness 
where  God  has  commanded  toil,  and  profaneness  where  He  has 
commanded  rest.1  To  the  French  Canadian  people,  the  Sabbath, 
at  least  after  those  hours  which  the  Church  of  Kome  claims  for 
her  service,  is  a  day  of  sport  and  pleasure  ;  and  with  the  dance, 
the  chase,  or  at  the  tavern,  do  they  often  cheat  away  its  sacred 
hours.  Nor  is  the  conduct  of  the  priest  less  suicidal,  for  at  the 
whist-table,  or  in  equally  unsuitable  occupations,  this  "  blind  leader 
of  the  blind"  not  unfrequently  gives  to  his  people  the  example 
of  trampling  on  the  Lord's  day.2  Among  the  575,000  Roman 
Catholics  in  Lower  Canada  there  is  no  holy  Sabbath,  and  the 
afternoon  of  the  day,  both  by  priests  and  people,  is  made  a  season 
of  recreation  and  pleasure.  And  the  Sabbath  with  them  is  not 
considered  half  as  sacred  as  their  set  holidays.  The  afternoon  of 
the  day  is  a  peculiar  time  for  trading  and  trafficking  in  horses 
and  cattle.3 

We  have  in  another  place  cited  the  account  of  the  Sabbath  in 
Spain  given  by  Mr.  Meyrick,  who  states  that  to  the  poor  man  in 
that  country  it  brings  no  rest,  all  in-door  trades  being  carried  on, 
and  that  to  the  rich  it  is  a  day  of  pleasure,  of  bull-fights  and 
theatrical  amusements.  The  author  of  Souvenirs  of  a  Summer 
in  Germany  says  of  a  Sunday  which  she  spent  in  Brussels  : 
"All  the  shops  are  open,  stalls  in  the  streets,  etc.,  and  the 
every- day  business  of  life  no  way  interrupted.  While  we  were 
at  breakfast,  Guillaume  came  in  to  say,  that  if  Monsieur  wished 
to  have  his  coat  repaired,  the  ouvrier  was  outside  and  would 
have  it  done  in  an  hour ;  and  he  seemed  quite  disappointed  at 
not  being  allowed  to  take  it.  Shortly  after,  tickets  were  sent 

1  State  of  Religion  in  Madeira,  Christian  Herald  for  1843,  p.  2SL 

2  Record  of  French  Canadian  Society. 

»  Rev.  Joel  Fisk,  Christian  Treasury  (1851).  189. 

25 


566  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

in  for  the  theatre  that  night,  with  the  compliments  of  the  British 
Minister." 

The  writer  has  spent  Sabbaths  in  several  continental  towns, 
and  must  say  that  nowhere  did  he  witness  so  utter  a  prostitution 
of  the  sacred  day  as  in  Paris,  where  the  morning  was  signalized 
by  the  sale  and  reading  of  newspapers,  the  day  by  busy  merchan 
dise  and  labour,  and  the  evening  by  crowded  cafe's  and  brilliantly 
lighted  places  of  amusement.  A  correspondent  writes  in  the 
Record  newspaper  in  1841  :  "In  Paris,  tailors,  shoemakers,  and 
all  who  supply  articles  of  dress  and  ornament,  are  fully  occupied 
on  Sunday  morning.  Many  of  the  working  classes  work  on  Sab 
bath,  and  rest  during  the  week.  This  is  the  case,  too,  with  those 
employed  about  theatres,  shows,  etc.  The  great  majority  of  the 
French  abstain  on  Sunday,  as  on  every  other  day,  from  any  reli 
gious  act ;  and  the  few  who  differ  are  content  to  go  and  hear  a 
mass.  They  do  this  on  the  way  to  the  country,  or  at  some  vil 
lage  where  they  go  for  sport.  They  praise  a  man  by  saying  he 
is  a  horse,  and  works  on  feast-days  and  Sunday. '  In  the  best  de 
scription  which  we  have  seen  of  a  Paris  Sabbath,  but  which  is 
too  long  for  transcription  here,  it  is  mentioned  that  that  day  in 
the  capital,  and  almost  universally  in  French  territory,  the  shops 
are  open  ;  the  restaurants  and  coffee-houses  are  more  than  usually 
splendid  ;  the  theatres  more  numerously  and  eagerly  frequented 
than  on  other  days  ;  that  all  the  artisans  work  on  Sunday  and 
rest  on  Monday ;  that  marriages  invariably  take  place  amongst 
the  lower  and  the  middle  classes  on  the  Saturday,  because  they 
have  Sunday  before  them  for  rest  or  amusement ;  that  balls  are 
similarly  given  on  Saturday,  because  after  a  night  of  dissipation 
they  have  Sunday  for  rest ;  that,  in  short,  Sunday  is  the  chosen 
day  for  military  reviews,  the  inauguration  of  public  buildings  and 
public  festivals ;  the  day  for  excursions,  balls,  promenades,  con 
certs,  and  festivities  of  all  sorts."1 

Let  us  now  see  how  it  is  with  the  day  of  rest  in  foreign  Pro 
testant  countries.  The  following  account  of  a  Sabbath  in  Berlin 
is  too  applicable  to  other  parts  of  Protestant  Germany  :  "  The 

1  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  pp.  303-305.  "  Ce  bienfait  est  m6connu  en  France 
— comme  il  ne  Va  £te  nulle  parte  et  jamais." — Montalembert,  7)e  I'Observ. 
etc.  p.  7. 


DESECEATION EXTENT.  567 

Sabbath  desecration  of  Berlin  is  most  lamentable.  It  is  not  like 
the  gay  pleasure-days  of  Paris,  nor  like  the  day  of  show  and  parade 
in  London,  but  it  is  like  a  common  business  day.  Most  of  the 
shops  are  open  and  busily  frequented,  and  most  of  the  people  wear 
their  week-day  clothes.  In  the  evening,  it  was  saddening  to  see 
the  large  theatres  open  and  lighted  up.  Guilty  city  !  Paris  sins 
in  comparative  ignorance,  but  Berlin  sins  against  the  light  of  a 
faithfully  preached  gospel,  and  the  testimony  of  many  holy  be 
lievers."  l  "  For  aught  I  know,"  says  Mr.  Plitt,  "  there  is  not, 
one  town  in  all  Germany  where  the  theatres  are  closed  on  the 
Sabbath."2 

Mr.  Eae  Wilson,  in  his  Travels  in  Norway,  Sweden,  etc.,  says, 
"  No  regard  is  paid  in  these  countries  after  church  to  the  Divine 
command,  *  Thou  shalt  keep  the  Sabbath  holy,'  for  the  afternoon 
is  spent  by  all  classes  in  singing,  dancing,  visiting  the  theatre,  and 
other  kinds  of  merriment.  This  appeared  to  me  highly  indeco 
rous,  considering  that  the  Norwegians  and  Swedes  profess  the  Pro 
testant  faith,  and  cannot  be  said  to  labour  under  the  darkness  of 
the  Komish  Church"  (p.  125).  Sabbath  observance  would  appear, 
indeed,  to  be  of  a  lower  tone  in  all  the  Lutheran  communities  than 
in  those  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Mr.  Laing,  in  his  Travels  in 
Norway,  says,  "It  is  a  peculiarity  in  all  Lutheran  churches  which 
strikes  the  traveller,  especially  from  Scotland,  that  the  evening  of 
Sunday  is  not  passed  as  with  us,  in  quiet  and  stillness  at  least,  if 
not  in  devotional  exercises.  He  must  be  a  very  superficial  ob 
server,  however,  who  ascribes  this  to  a  want  of  religious  feeling. 
It  arises  from  the  peculiar,  and  in  the  Free  Lutheran  Church  uni 
versally  received  interpretation  of  the  scriptural  words,  that  '  the 
evening  and  the  morning  made  the  first  day.'  The  evening  of 
Saturday  and  the  morning  of  Sunday,  make  the  seventh  day  or 
Sabbath,  according  to  the  Lutheran  Church.  This  interpretation 
is  so  fully  established  and  interwoven  with  their  thinking  and  act 
ing,  that  entertainments,  dances,  card-parties,  and  all  public 
amusements  take  place  regularly  on  Sunday  evenings"  (p.  190). 
Mr.  Laing  adds  that  "  a  Lutheran  minister  gives  a  party  on  Sun 
day  evening  at  his'  house  at  which  you  find  music,  dancing^ 

1  Narrative  of  a  Mission  to  the  Jeu-s,  p.  507. 

2  Religious  Condition  of  Ch.rixtcntlom,  p.  479. 


568  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

and  cards,"  and  "  would  think  it  superstitious  to  object  to  it." 
But  do  the  Lutherans  shorten  their  own  days  as  they  do  the 
Lord's  day  1  If  not,  the  apology  of  the  charitable  traveller  will  not 
avail  them.  The  state  of  the  Sabbath  in  America  is  much  what 
it  is  in  the  mother  country.  And  yet,  we  were  not  prepared  for 
a.  late  statement  in  one  of  the  Boston  papers,  to  the  effect  that  a 
musical  society  in  that  city  were  giving  public  concerts  on  the 
Sabbath  evenings.1 

CAUSES  OF  SABBATH  DESECRATION. 

The  human  mind  is  naturally  unwilling  to  stoop  to  authority, 
even  when  that  authority  may  be  interposed  in  favour  of  a  work 
not  repulsive  to  it.  Many  dislike  to  be  told  to  do  what  they  are 
inclined  to,  and  will  on  this  very  account  do  the  opposite.  But  to 
be  required  to  do  what  is  contrary  to  our  inclinations  is  doubly 
offensive,  and  to  have  to  continue  in  such  a  course  exasperates  the 
feelings  beyond  all  endurance.  There  is  nothing  in  any  Divine 
requirement  that  is  not  holy,  just,  and  good — that  is  not  in  itself 
reasonable,  beneficial,  and  pleasant.  In  the  heart  of  man,  how 
ever,  there  is  that  which  converts  all  into  gloom,  oppression,  in 
justice  and  misery.  "  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God  ; 
for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be." 
Now,  because  the  Sabbath  requires  total  abstinence  from  thought 
and  occupation  relative  to  the  things  of  the  world,  which  are 
supremely  loved,  and  the  concentration  of  the  spirit  on  all  that  is 
spiritual,  and  thoroughly  hated,  the  whole  opposition  of  the  per 
son  to  the  Divine  law  is  stirred  against  the  all-comprehending 
statute,  "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy."  The  re 
sult  is  either  such  a  constrained  observance  of  it  as  excites  the 
feeling,  Behold  what  a  weariness  is  it  ! — When  will  the  Sabbath 
be  gone  1  or  a  bold  renunciation  of  the  yoke,  and  a  joining  with* 
others  in  the  unholy  confederacy  of  plotting  against  the  day  itself, 
"Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  their  cords 
from  us." 

This  is  the  secret  source  of  bitterness  against  one  of  the  wisest 
and  most  benign  of  institutions  ;  the  principle  which  gives  potency 

1  Montreal  Witness,  March  11,  1856. 


DESECRATION CAUSES.  569 

to  nil  influences  of  an  external  nature,  and  to  all  arguments  against 
the  consecration  of  an  entire  day  to  the  service  of  Him  who  is  re 
garded  as  an  enemy.  But  for  this  state  of  mind,  how  would  it  be 
possible  for  any  rational  being  to  resist  the  evidence  for  the  Sab 
bath,  presented  in  its  own  apparent  wisdom,  simplicity  and  beauty, 
in  the  plain  statements  of  Kevelation,  and  in  the  actual  results 
of  its  observance  in  the  formation  of  a  personal  excellence  in 
thousands  such  as  is  produced  by  no  other  means,  and  in  a  social 
dignity,  purity,  and  happiness  by  which  Sabbath-observing  com 
munities  are  so  distinguished  above  all  others  ?  Let  us  learn, 
however,  from  this  cause  of  opposition  to  the  Lord's  day,  that  our 
chief  endeavour  must  be  to  encounter  it  by  the  only  means  cap 
able  of  fully  meeting  and  dislodging  it,  and  of  securing  both  a 
genuine  and  abiding  respect  for  the  Divine  Commandment,  that 
Word  of  the  Lord  which  transforms  the  dispositions  of  the  heart, 
that  armoury  of  spiritual  weapons  which  are  mighty  through  God 
for  pulling  down  strongholds. 

It  would  be  well  if  the  opponents  of  the  Sabbath  were  to  con 
sider  the  imposition  which  they  practise  upon  themselves  in 
giving  heed  to  the  calumnies  listened  to,  or  invented  by  them 
against  the  friends  of  the  institution  as  persons  of  narrow,  bigoted 
notions,  and  in  mistaking  their  own  prejudices  and  prepossessions 
for  argument  and  truth.  It  would  be  well  for  them  to  ponder 
their  proceedings,  the  more  that  able  men  may  advance  much  that 
is  ingenious  and  plausible  in  support  of  a  bad  cause,  and  that 
such  ability  may  serve  only  to  place  a  man  more  hopelessly  be 
yond  the  reach  of  that  truth  which  is  obvious  to  simpler  and 
more  unsophisticated  minds.  Let  them  consider,  too,  that  many 
have  thought  like  them  respecting  the  Sabbath,  but  have  lived  to 
lament  their  opinions,  or  have  died  retracting  them.  No  incon 
sistency  in  professed  Christians,  none  of  the  subsidiary  agencies 
•*or  neglects  now  to  be  mentioned  as  contributing  to  their  state  of 
mind,  will  free  them  from  responsibility.  Their  own  dislike  to 
the  Sabbath  is  at  the  foundation  of  all  their  views  and  feelings 
on  the  subject,  and  that  dislike  is  voluntary,  uncoerced,  and 
criminal. 

We  fear  that  much  of  the  prevailing  desecration  of  the  Sabbath 
is  owing  to  the  apathy  and  evil  example  of  its  professed  friends. 


570  THE  SABBATH  ENFOECED. 

We  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  take  advantage  of  the 
errors  of  individuals  to  condemn  and  expose  classes  of  men.  But 
we  trust  that  we  commit  no  such  fault,  when,  recollecting  the 
power  of  the  sacred  office  for  evil  or  for  good,  we  affirm  that  some 
of  those  holding  that  office  have  done  much  to  promote  the  dese 
cration  of  the  Lord's  day  ;  that  others  have  done  too  little  to 
arrest  the  evil ;  and  that  many,  than  whom  none  will  be  readier 
to  acknowledge  the  fact  than  themselves,  have  not  done  what  they 
could  to  vindicate  the  claims  and  to  diffuse  the  spirit  of  the  day 
of  rest.  Truth  requires  us  to  say  that  the  desecration  of  the 
Sabbath  in  Koman  Catholic  countries  is  attributable  in  a  great 
measure  to  the  priesthood,  who  having  so  much  control  over  their 
people,  withhold  from  them  the  Word  of  God,  and  both  by  pre 
cept  and  example  teach  them  that  they  sufficiently  fulfil  the 
demands  of  the  Sabbath  law  by  attending  once  on  the  service  of 
the  mass,  while,  instead  of  appealing  to  the  legal  tribunals  when 
the  evil  becomes  too  much  even  for  them,  they  could  by  moral 
means  have  secured  at  least  an  external  decency  of  character  on 
the  Lord's  day.  But  there  are  Protestant  clergymen  who  are 
even  worse  than  they,  inasmuch  as  they  offend  amidst  the  clearer 
light  and  better  profession  of  the  Reformation.  When  such  men 
are  found  significantly  pointing  their  flocks  to  the  discarded 
festivals  of  Koine  as  worthy  of  their  admiration ;  when  they  are 
seen  performing  the  most  sacred  offices  of  religion  with  manifest 
indifference  or  with  pompous  display  ;  when  they  are  not  careful 
to  declare  all  the  counsel  of  God,  the  grace  of  the  gospel  as  well 
as  the  claims  of  the  law  ;  when  they  prophesy  smooth  things, 
and  when  they  are  chargeable  with  immoralities,  worldly  con 
formity,  or  profaneness,  what  is  to  be  expected  but  that  there 
shall  be,  like  priest,  like  people  1  The  misconduct  of  the  clergy 
had  no  small  influence  upon  the  celebrated  Earl  of  Rochester,  as 
he  himself  confessed,  to  make  him  an  atheist.  The  increase  of 
Sabbath  desecration  in  Germany  had  its  origin  in  times  when 
infidelity  was  spread  by  the  universities  amongst  the  clergy,  and 
by  the  clergy  amongst  the  people. 

But  the  members  of  churches  have  their  influence  and  responsi 
bilities.  Those  who  profess  to  be  Protestants,  hold  it  as  a  part  of 
their  creed  that  they  have  a  right  to  bring  the  sentiments  and 


DESECRA  TION CAUSES.  571 

practice  of  their  spiritual  guides  "  to  the  law  and  to  the  testi 
mony."  They  are  ready  enough  to  exercise  this  right  in  matters 
of  worldly  concern,  and  it  will  not  avail  them  to  allege,  in  refer 
ence  to  moral  and  religious  things,  that  they  followed  the  example 
of  their  pastors.  Many  of  these  pastors,  besides,  have  taught 
and  done  what  was  right,  and  their  people  are  found  failing  to 
profit  by  their  instructions,  and  to  walk  in  their  steps.  We  are 
entitled,  therefore,  to  separate  the  members  of  churches  from  their 
ministers,  and  to  view  them  as  a  distinct  and  independent  source 
of  influence  in  regard  to  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Every 
professed  Christian  who  is  careless  in  this  respect  contributes  to 
the  discouragement  of  faithful  ministers,  to  the  impairing  of  the 
power  of  Christianity,  and  to  the  corruption  of  society  in  a  de 
gree  which  is  incalculable.  Let  us  refer  to  one  principal  mode  in 
which  the  improper  conduct  of  such  persons  operates.  We  refer 
to  the  want  of  parental  care  and  example.  While  many,  like 
Abraham,  command  their  children  and  households  after  them  to 
do  what  is  right,  there  are  others  who  resemble  Eli,  of  whom  it 
is  said  that  when  his  sons  made  themselves  vile  he  restrained 
them  not.  "  You  attribute,"  said  the  chairman  of  the  Sabbath 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  when  examining  Mr.  H.  F. 
Isaac,  a  Jew,  "  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  on  the  part  of  the 
Jew,  to  the  force  of  early  religious  education  ?"  "  I  am  satisfied 
it  is  so,"  was  the  reply.  We  may  conceive  a  variety  of  ways  in 
which  heads  of  families  professing  religion,  do  what  tends  to  de 
feat  as  to  them  its  great  end.  One  is  frequently  called  from 
home,  and  his  house  on  the  Lord's  day  is  exposed  to  intrusion 
from  the  worldly  men  with  whom  he  is  connected  in  business. 
The  result  is,  that  a  numerous  family  grow  up  practical  pagans. 
Another  leaves  his  family  very  much  to  themselves  ;  and  while 
some  are  constrained  by  early  affliction  to  direct  their  attention  to 
matters  of  chief  moment,  others  become  the  disgrace  of  his  name. 
A  third  is  so  much  occupied  with  attending  religious  meetings, 
and  with  the  theory  of  religion,  that  his  children  are  in  a  great 
measure  neglected,  and  what  they  learn  is  a  sort  of  form  of  godli 
ness,  so  that  none  of-  them  gives  decided  indications  of  Christian 
character.  A  fourth  is  so  stern  and  harsh  in  his  discipline 
respecting  Sabbath-keeping  and  other  duties,  that  the  effect  of 


672  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

freedom  from  parental  control  is  the  bounding  to  a  worse  extreme. 
But  cases  accumulate  to  the  view  beyond  the  possibility  of  being 
recorded  in  our  allowed  space,  and  impress  us  with  the  conviction 
that  parents  have  much  to  answer  for  in  reference  to  prevailing 
Sabbath  desecration.  A  London  City  Missionary  says,  "  I  have 
never  discovered  a  single  case  of  juvenile  delinquency  where  the 
child  had  been  the  subject  from  infancy  of  the  double  teaching  by 
precept  and  example  in  the  ways  of  Christ,  at  the  hands  of 
parents,  both  of  whom  were  evidentfy  truly  converted  to  God.  I 
do  not  strain  the  promise  so  far  as  to  believe  such  is  never  the 
case  ;  I  simply  state  the  result  of  systematic  inquiry  and  studies 
of  human  nature,  pursued  most  extensively  for  years,  at  no  small 
pains."1 

There  are  other  forms,  however,  in  which  the  injurious  influ 
ence  of  professed  friends  of  the  Sabbath  is  exerted.  The  conver 
sation  which  takes  place  when  persons  are  congregated  about  the 
house  of  God,  or  when  they  meet  with  their  friends,  goes  to  pro 
duce  the  impression  that  they  recognise  no  difference  of  day,  so 
far  as  that  is  concerned.  There  are  those  who  take  liberties  with 
the  Sabbath  by  visits  to  their  acquaintance,  under  the  delusive 
persuasion  that  they  still  maintain  the  sanctity  of  the  day  by 
attending  church  at  the  stated  time  of  service.  There  are  others 
who  indulge  themselves  on  that  day  with  walking  or  in  feasting. 
To  these  we  must  add  a  class  who  subject  many  to  unnecessary 
labour  by  employing  vehicles  in  going  to  church.  We  cannot  con 
ceive  a  better  use  of  such  conveniences  than  conveying  the  infirm 
and  the  sickly  to  the  house  of  God,  when  this  is  so  done  as  to 
interfere  with  no  servant's  religious  rights  and  benefit  on  the 
Sabbath.  But  this  condition  is  often  violated.  It  should  seem 
that  "it  is  a  common  thing  for  persons  to  ride  on  Sundays  to 
their  places  of  worship,"2  and  that  some  go  considerable  distances 
for  this  object.3  That  this  is  not  necessary,  appears  from  the  dif 
ferent  conduct  of  "  the  religious  persons  of  Islington,  who  are 
proverbial  for  not  riding  in  omnibuses  on  Sundays."4 

A  large  proportion  of  Sabbath  profanation  is  chargeable  to  the 
account  of  the  higher  and  wealthier  classes  of  society.  Many  of 

1  Notes,  etc.,  by  R.  W.  Vanderkiste,  p.  260.  2  Baylee's  Statistics,  p  79. 

*  Baylee's  Statistics,  ]>.  7£>,  «  Ibid.  p.  80. 


DESECRATION C  A  USES.  573 

these  classes  corrupt  others  by  their  example.  The  disposition  to 
throw  off  the  restraints  of  religion  is  ready  to  avail  itself  of  some 
apology  or  encouragement.  And  nothing  is  more  likely  to  furnish 
it  than  the  conduct  of  our  superiors  in  station.  A  writer  on 
Sabbath  desecration  in  Germany  says,  "  Persons  of  high  rank 
gave  a  very  bad  example,  and  the  people  followed  it  willingly. 
The  officers  of  the  government  were  seen  very  seldom  at  public 
worship.  During  the  morning  you  found  them  generally  in  their 
offices,  in  the  afternoon  on  some  pleasure  party,  and  in  the  even 
ing  at  the  theatre."  1  In  the  evidence  on  the  Sabbath  given  be 
fore  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1832,  the  influence 
of  the  example  of  the  upper  classes  in  inducing  their  inferiors  to 
mis-spend  the  Lord's  day  is  amply  attested.  "  The  opportunity 
of  knowing,  through  the  public  press  and  other  sources,  how  the 
higher  classes  of  society  generally,  but  more  particularly  in  the 
metropolis,  are  employed  on  the  Lord's  day,  has  a  powerful  influ 
ence  on  the  minds  of  the  lower  classes,  as  a  temptation  or  en 
couragement  in  their  habits  of  Sabbath  profanation."2  "When 
you  have  endeavoured  to  enforce  the  duty  of  observing  the  Sabbath 
upon  the  lower  classes,  do  they  frequently  allege  the  example  of 
those  in  a  higher  sphere  of  life  in  justification  of  their  own  neglect, 
and  violation  of  that  day  T  "  Continually ;  and,  in  more  than 
one  instance,  the  meeting  of  Cabinet  ministers  on  that  day."  3  "I 
have  met  with  instances  where  the  lower  classes  have  said,  '  The 
greater  ones  do  it ' — buying  fish  on  Sunday — *  and  why  should 
we  not  do  it  V  "  4 

Then  how  many  unnecessary  works  and  pleasures  of  the  great 
and  rich  make  it  in  some  sort  imperative  on  tradesmen  and 
others  to  encroach  on  sacred  time.  The  journeys  undertaken  that 
might  have  been  arranged  for  another  day,  the  entertainments 
that  might  be  postponed,  the  luxury  of  a  particular  dress,  or 
article  of  food,  or  newspaper,  these  things,  so  utterly  contemptible, 
involve  many  human  beings  in  Sabbath  labour,  to  the  loss  of  the 
weekly  rest  required  by  their  physical  powers,  and  of  the  means 
of  spiritual  good  indispensable  to  their  higher  being  and  interests. 

1  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom  (1S52),  p.  466. 

J  Report,  Evidence  of  Mr.  D.  Rowland,  p.  94. 

»  Evidence  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Cunningham.  Harrow,  p.  177.  4  Evidence,  p.  101. 


574  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

What  is  the  penalty  of  the  gratification  of  such  desires  to  their 
victims,  but  slavery,  sin  against  their  great  Master,  shortened  life 
here,  and  the  forfeiture  of  the  better  life  hereafter  ?  "  Masters 
and  men  are  wholly  employed  during  the  day,  and  more  so  on  the 
Sunday,  because  many  noblemen  and  gentlemen  who  are  members 
of  Parliament,  have  more  company  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  these 
being  the  only  leisure  their  parliamentary  duties  afford  them,  con 
sequently  there  is  more  done  on  these  days  than  on  others."  l 
"  Amongst  the  nobility  and  gentry  there  is  most  business  done  on 
Saturday  and  Sunday."  2  "  From  the  nature  of  your  business,  do 
you  see  any  means  of  diminishing  your  occupation,  as  long  as  the 
upper  classes  continue  to  give  dinners  on  that  day  [Sunday]  1 " 
"  I  do  not  see  that  there  is."  ..."  Then,  speaking  as  a  conscien 
tious  man,  it  would  be  agreeable  to  you  if  the  upper  classes  of 
society  did  fix  on  other  days  rather  than  Sunday  for  their  great 
dinners ? "  "I  should  most  decidedly  say  so,  as  far  as  regards 
myself  individually,  and  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  my  ser 
vants  ;  for  I  consider  it  to  be  a  duty  that  I  owe  them  to  relieve 
them  as  much  as  possible  from  their  duties  on  Sunday  ;  whether 
they  employ  it  in  religious  subjects,  or  in  any  other  manner,  it 
gives  them  the  opportunity,  if  they  think  proper,  to  improve  it ; 
and  if  they  do  not,  it  still  affords  them  the  same  advantages  which 
most  other  people  enjoy,  that  is,  a  day  of  repose  after  a  week  of 
hard  work."  3 

To  masters  and  employers  of  workmen  another  large  share  of 
Sabbath  desecration  must  be  ascribed.  While  many  tradesmen, 
forty-nine  out  of  fifty  in  London,  desire  to  be  relieved  from  Sunday 
trading,  there  are  many  others  who  are  influenced  by  the  cupidity 
and  speculation  so  prevalent  in  our  time  voluntarily  to  bind 
fetters  on  working  men  in  place  of  the  holy  and  merciful  restraints 
of  the  Sabbath  law.  Let  us  hear  the  following  statements  on 
this  latter  point  :  "  Does  the  journeyman  get  additional  wages  for 
working  on  Sunday?"  "None  at  all."  "Then  it  is  only  the 
desire  of  gain  on  the  part  of  the  master  that  induces  them  to  go 

1  Report,  Evidence  of  Mr.  J.  B.,  Fishmonger,  p.  96. 
3  Report,  Evidence  of  W.  D.,  Fishmonger,  p.  104. 

3  Report,  Evidence  of  Mr.  J.  Chaplain,  proprietor  of  Clarendon  Hotel,  Bond  Street 
pp.  m-8. 


DESECRATION CAUSES.  575 

on  1  "  "  That  circumstance  is  the  whole  of  it."  x  "  Is  there  a 
general  desire  on  the  part  of  the  tradesmen  in  Eichmond  to  see 
the  Sunday  better  observed  than  it  is  at  present  ?  "  "I  think 
there  is  with  one  part,  but  the  other  part  are  more  anxious  to  get 
money."2 

In  defence  of  this  reckless  spirit,  which,  for  the  sake  of  money, 
disregards  the  law  of  God  and  the  rights  of  man,  it  is  pleaded 
that  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  it,  and  that  in  the  general  race  and 
rush  they  must  do  like  others  if  they  would  not  be  distanced  in 
the  course,  or  run  over  in  the  crowd.  But  what  is  in  opposition 
to  those  Divine  statutes  which  forbid  and  condemn  the  too  eager 
pursuit  of  gain,  the  hastening  to  be  rich,  and  the  "  adding  of  house 
to  house,  and  laying  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  place,  that  they 
may  be  placed  alone  in  the  earth,"  admits  of  no  apology.  The 
spirit  is  not  only  ungodly,  but  selfish  and  unfeeling  as  regards  the 
interests  of  those  whom  it  employs  to  be  the  instruments  of  its 
gratification,  turning  them  into  beasts  of  burden  or  mere  machines, 
and  caring  not,  if  they  serve  such  a  turn,  what  becomes  of  their 
mental  improvement,  their  souls,  their  everlasting  interests.  Mam 
mon  is  indeed  a  cruel  God,  who  has  no  regard  for  the  flesh  and 
blood,  the  noble  faculties  and  feelings,  the  precious  souls  which 
his  votaries  sacrifice  in  his  honour.  Many  examples  there  are  to 
be  found  indeed  in  the  commercial  world  of  men  who  really  feel 
for  their  workmen,  and  provide  for  them  the  means  of  promoting 
their  health,  comfort,  and  instruction.  There  are  our  Buxtons 
and  other  kindred  spirits.  Where,  however,  human  beings  are 
persuaded  that  the  great  object  of  life  is  to  be  rich,  how  can  we 
suppose  that  they  will  allow  their  dependants  time  and  oppor 
tunity  for  that  mental  and  moral  culture,  of  the  value  of  which  to 
themselves,  and  especially  to  working  men,  they  have  no  just 
conception  1 

There  is  one  way  in  which  employers  promote  the  desecration 
of  the  Sabbath  that  has  not  even  the  plea  of  the  smallest  contri 
bution  to  their  advantage  or  pleasure.  We  refer  to  the  payment 
of  their  men  at  a  time  that  exposes  the  latter  to  various 
temptations  and  injuries,  and  in  some  cases  necessitates  the  in 
fraction  of  the  Divine  law.  There  have  been  instances  in  which 

i  Report,  Evidence  of  Mr.  J.  C.,  Jr.,  Baker,  Richmond,  p.  189.  2  IlriA,  p.  I9(X 


576  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

wages  were  actually  paid  on  the  Lord's  day.  It  is  not  long  since 
this  was  done  in  some  parts  of  England,  cases  few,  we  trust,  and 
now  discontinued.  It  was  proved  in  the  evidence  from  which  we 
have  been  quoting,  that  masters,  by  not  paying  their  men  till 
Saturday  night,  obliged  them  to  make  Sunday  marketings,  which 
occasioned  crowds  on  Sabbath,  subjected  the  workman  to  increased 
expense,  and  made  him  abstain  from  going  to  church  ;  and  that 
there  was  no  necessity  for  Sunday  marketing. 1 

There  are  influences  from  without  which  do  much  to  lower  the 
general  tone  of  religion  and  morals,  and  to  foster  Sabbath  dese 
cration.  One  kind  of  influence  affects  chiefly  the  upper  and 
middle  ranks  of  the  community,  that  originating  in  their  inter 
course  with  foreigners.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  visits 
of  our  countrymen  to  the  Continent,  so  multiplied  of  late  by  the 
facilities  of  communication,  can  have  been  without  considerable 
injury  to  our  national  customs  and  manners.  Familiarity  with  a 
secular  Sabbath  tends  to  abate  a  sense  of  the  evil.  A  partial  at 
tendance  in  the  house  of  God,  and  occasional  absences,  cease  to  be 
considered  as  anything  wrong.  And  the  frivolity  and  demoraliz 
ing  amusements  of  other  lands  fascinate  the  mind  and  corrupt  the 
heart. 

Another  species  of  influence  has  had  its  sphere  of  action  among 
the  remaining  class  of  society.  The  immigration  of  so  many 
natives  of  the  sister  island  has  been  felt  in  an  immense  addition 
to  the  poor-rates,  in  defeating  attempts  to  repress  crime  and  dis 
ease,  and  in  bringing  down  our  comparatively  instructed  and  moral 
population  to  their  own  level,  and  in  some  cases  below  it,  as  the 
impetus  in  consequence  of  the  greater  height  fallen  from  must  be 
greater.  All  this  must  be  unfavourable  to  a  regard  for  sacred 
institutions.  But  as  the  persons  imported  bring  with  them  a 
religion  which  recognises  only  a  fraction  of  a  Sabbath,  their  prac 
tices  on  that  day  come  to  be  regarded  with  decreasing  aversion 
and  fear,  and  in  course  of  time  to  be  imitated. 

The  defective,  erroneous,  and  worthless  opinions  propagated 
through  the  press  form  the  only  other  cause  of  the  evil  in  ques 
tion  which  we  have  to  name.  Among  these  opinions  are  deficient 
and  incorrect  views  with  regard  to  the  institution  itself  We  pre~ 

1  Report,  Evidence,  pp.  29,  30. 


DESECRATION CAUSES.  577 

sent  a  specimen  or  two.  The  first  concerns  the  Continent.  "  You 
know,"  observes  the  Rev.  T.  Plitt  of  Bonn,  "that  an  opinion  pre 
vails  in  our  country  that  there  is  no  real  connexion  between  the 
Christian  Sunday  and  the  command  of  God,  <  Kemember  the 
Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy ;'  but  that  the  Sunday  celebration 
is  a  human  institution  which  must  be  left  to  Christian  liberty, 
because  it  is  good,  and  because  it  is  enjoined  by  the  Church.  This 
view,  in  different  gradations,  you  find  too  general  in  Germany  ; 
and  I  am  quite  convinced  you  agree  with  me  in  believing  that  a 
truly  Christian  Sabbath  observance  is  only  possible  if  we  hold 
that  the  law  given  to  Adam,  and  repeated  on  Mount  Sinai,  « Re 
member  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep  it  holy,'  has  an  eternal  obliga 
tion."1  We  give  another  specimen,  one  relating  to  our  own 
country  :  "  The  thought  of  writing  at  all  was  suggested  to  me  by 
a  few  words  only,  which  I  heard  interchanged  in  the  street  of  a 
country  town,  but  which  were  sufficient  to  convince  rne  that  Dr. 
Whately's  pamphlet,  Thoughts  on  the  Sabbath,  was  doing  extreme 
mischief ;  and  that  through  it  an  opinion  was  gaining  ground 
that  the  Episcopacy  of  our  Church  was  opposed  to  the  principle 
of  keeping  holy  the  Sabbath-day.  Under  such  circumstances,  I 
was  induced  to  write  these  pages,  to  vindicate  the  Divine  institu 
tion  of  the  Christian  Sabbath."2  We  find  in  the  pamphlet  itself, 
on  which  Mr.  Barter  animadverts,  evidence  that  its  views  are  not 
fitted  to  produce  the  most  elevated  morality.  In  an  address  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Dublin  and  its  vicinity,  the  Archbishop  says, 
"  If,  for  instance,  after  devoutly  attending  Divine  worship  with 
your  family,  you  just  turn  into  a  shop  to  buy  some  trifling  article, 
you  indeed  may  not  feel  that  you  are  doing  anything  that  inter 
feres  with  your  own  devout  observance  of  the  day  \  but  you  uhculd 
remember  that  the  expectation  of  some  such  chance-customers 
may  induce  the  tradesman  to  remain  all  day  in  his  shop,  occupied 
in  his  ordinary  worldly  affairs,  and  deprived  of  his  best,  and  per 
haps  only  opportunity,  of  attending  to  the  concerns  of  his  soul. "3 
From  a  sentence  in  the  Thoughts  on  the  Sabbath,  to  which  the 
Address  is  appended,  we  learn  the  following  fact  relative  to  per 
sons  known  to  the  'writer  as  entertaining  his  opinions  on  the  ques- 

1  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  pp.  479,  480. 

2  Barter's  Answer  to  Whately,  p.  35.  3  Pp.  43,  44 

2o 


578  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

tion  :  "  I  have  formerly  hinted  my  suspicions,  in  an  essay  already 
before  the  public  [On  the  Love  of  Truth],  that  some  persons  who 
do  not  really  believe  the  Mosaic  law  relative  to  the  Sabbath  to  be 
binding  on  Christians,  yet  think  it  right  to  encourage  or  tacitly 
connive  at  that  belief  from  views  of  expediency,  for  fear  of  un 
settling  the  minds  of  the  common  people.  Indeed,  I  know,  as  a 
fact,  respecting  several  persons,  what  is  probably  the  case  with 
many  others,  that  they  fully  coincide  with  my  views  on  the  pre 
sent  question,  though  they  judge  it  not  advisable,  at  present  at 
least,  to  come  forward  and  avow  their  opinion. '  l 

The  influence  of  the  unguarded  expressions  of  Luther  and 
others  on  the  subject  before  us  was  very  extensively,  and  has  been 
also  permanently,  injurious  to  the  interests  of  religion  and  morality. 
We  have  only  to  look  to  the  Protestant  countries  of  the  Continent 
for  the  proof.  "  Their  view  about  the  Sabbath  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment  as  a  Jewish  ordinance,"  observes  Fairbairn,  "  told 
most  unfavourably  upon  the  interests  of  religion  on  the  Continent. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  was  the  evil  root  from  which 
chiefly  sprung  so  soon  afterwards  such  a  mass  of  Sabbath  desecra 
tion,  and  which  has  rendered  it  so  difficult  ever  since  to  restore 
the  day  of  God  to  its  proper  place  in  the  feelings  and  observances 
of  the  people.  .  .  .  The  evil,  once  begun,  proceeded  rapidly 
from  bad  to  worse,  till  it  scarcely  left  in  many  places  so  much  as 
the  form  of  religion.  No  doubt  many  other  causes  were  at  work 
in  bringing  about  so  disastrous  a  result,  but  much  was  certainly 
owing  to  the  error  under  consideration.  And  it  reads  a  solemn 
and  impressive  warning  to  both  ministers  and  people,  not  only  to 
resist  to  the  utmost  all  encroachments  upon  the  sanctity  of  the 
Lord's  day,  but  also  to  beware  of  weakening  any  of^  the  founda 
tions  on  which  the  obligation  to  keep  that  day  is  made  to  rest ; 
and  here,  as  well  as  in  other  things,  to  seek,  with  Leighton,  that 
they  «  may  be  saved  from  the  errors  of  wise  men,  yea,  and  of  good 
men.'"2 

There  is  another  class  of  opinions  which,  without  referring  to 
our  institution  at  all,  operate  against  it,  by  fostering  the  suppo 
sition  that  religion  is  not  the  principal  concern  of  man.  The 
mere  absence  of  religion  from  a  publication  which  is  constantly 

1  Thoughts  on  the  Sabbath,  p.  1.  3  Typology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  475,  478 


DESECEATION CAUSES.  579 

read,  and  the  treatment  of  every  topic  as  if  there  were  nothing 
of  importance  beyond  the  present  scene,  have  a  most  seculariz 
ing  effect  on  the  public  mind.  Kobert  Hall  informs  us  that  the 
evil  effect  of  a  perusal  of  Miss  Edge  worth's  writings,  which  are 
marked  by  "a  universal  and  studied  omission  of  religion,"  was 
experienced  by  him  for  weeks.1  We  have  been  informed  by  a 
working  man  that  he  was  obliged  from  the  same  cause  to  discon 
tinue  the  reading  of  a  popular  miscellany  which  prides  itself  on 
its  harmlessness  and  moral  purity.  If  works  of  this  cast  tend 
to  make  their  readers  mere  "  men  of  the  world  who  have  their 
portion  in  this  life/'  such  a  publication  as  Punch  would  deprive 
them  of  any  little  dignity  which  the  other  writers  had  left  to 
their  time-bounded  existence.  Even  where  there  may  be  nothing 
profane  or  licentious  in  the  literature  of  the  day,  its  entirely 
worldly  or  frivolous  character  imparts  its  own  impress  to  the 
mind  of  the  reader. 

And  how  much  more  prejudicial  the  influence  of  those  number 
less  works  which  more  avowedly  or  covertly  seek  to  sap  the  foun 
dations  of  all  religion  and  morals  !  Of  this  class  of  publications 
it  was  stated,  in  1847,  that  there  was  an  annual  issue  of  not  less 
than  28,000,000.  This  would  give  an  average  weekly  number 
of  above  500,000,  and  supposing  five  readers  to  each,  there  must 
have  been  in  that  year  upwards  of  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people 
under  the  perpetual  operation  of  the  fatal  leaven.  Let  us  conclude 
this  part  of  our  subject  with  the  impressive  words  of  Dr.  Warren  : 
"  I  can  most  conscientiously  express  my  belief,  that  for  a  long  time 
no  periodical  of  note  has  been  established  in  this  country  which  has 
not  disclosed  the  desire  of  its  conductors  to  fit  it  for  the  purpose 
of  innocent  recreation  and  information  to  readers  of  both  sexes,  and 
of  all  ages  and  classes.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  stated  with  concern 
and  reluctance,  that  there  is  a  poisonous  growth  of  libertine  litera 
ture — if  the  last  word  be  not  indeed  libelled  by  such  a  us*  of  it — 
designed  for  the  lowest  classes  of  society  ;  supplied,  moreover,  to 
an  extent  scarcely  equal  to  the  demand  for  it,  and  which  exists  to 
an  extent  unfortunately  little  suspected.  I  know  not  how  this 
dreadful  evil  is  to  be  encountered,  except  by  affording  every  pos 
sible  encouragement,  from  every  quarter,  to  the  dissemination,  in 

i  Life,  p.  1T4. 


580  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

the  cheapest  practicable  form,  of  wholesome  and  engaging  litera 
ture.     If  poison  be  cheap,  let  its  antidote  be  cheaper." 1 

REMEDIES  FOR  SABBATH  DESECRATION. 

We  have  nothing  new  to  propose  on  this  part  of  our  subject. 
We  are  firmly  convinced  that  the  grand  panacea  for  the  ills  of  the 
world  has  been  long  ago  discovered  and  prescribed,  and  that  what 
is  wanting  is  only  its  more  general  and  earnest  application.  Be 
sides  this  chief  remedy,  there  are  others  important  in  their  place, 
but  even  on  these  little  room  has  been  left  for  originality.  As 
truth,  however,  needs  to  be  often  presented,  we  offer  no  apology 
for  the  following  suggestions. 

The  preaching  of  the  Word  by  the  appointed  servants  of  Christ 
is  perhaps  next  to  prayer  the  most  important  remedy  for  a  dese 
crated  Sabbath.  This  was  the  great  instrument  by  which  Christi 
anity  was  established  in  the  world.  It  was  the  chief  means  of  the 
Reformation.  It  has  done  more  than  any  other  human  agency  for 
the  conversion  of  the  heathen  in  our  own  time.  It  is  the  glory  of 
our  land.  It  would  enlighten  and  bless  all  nations  were  it  wielded 
as  extensively  as  there  are  human  beings.  It  would  still  more 
elevate  Christian  countries  were  it  more  fully  and  earnestly  em 
ployed.  And  we  have  only  to  examine  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of 
the  apostle  Paul  to  know  what  the  true  and  effectual  preaching 
of  the  gospel  is.  His  great  subject  was  a  crucified  Saviour,  and 
he  preached  well  and  successfully  because  he  believed,  felt,  prayed. 
Let  a  philosopher  who  knew  human  nature  well,  and  had  observed 
much,  be  heard  on  the  kind  of  preaching  that  does  good.  His  re 
mark  has  been  quoted  already,  but  deserves  repetition.  "  Those," 
he  says,  "  who  preach  faith,  or  in  other  words  a  pure  mind,  have 
always  produced  more  popular  virtue  than  those  who  preached 
good  wo$ks,  or  the  mere  regulation  of  outward  acts."  It  is  not 
difficult  to  trace  the  connexion  between  right  preaching  and  a 
sanctified  Sabbath.  Let  a  man  hear  and  believe  the  Word  of  God, 
and  he  immediately  feels  the  value  and  obligation  of  the  Lord's 
day,  as  of  every  Christian  ordinance.  If  a  person  live  under  a 
faithful  ministry  he  learns  more  and  more  of  the  value  and  obliga- 

1  Intellectual  and  Moral  Development  of  the  Present  Age.     By  Samuel  Warren,  etc.  p.  7 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  581 

tion  of  that  institution.  To  what  mainly  does  Great  Britain  owe 
a  Sabbath  to  such  an  extent  honoured  by  her  people,  and  blessing 
them  in  return  with  temporal  and  spiritual  good,  but  to  the  teach 
ings  of  an  evangelical  ministry  1  Let  it  be  the  endeavour  of  all 
who  wish  well  to  their  country  to  have  such  an  instrumentality 
extended  to  every  part  of  the  land.  It  is  a  melancholy  fact>  as 
we  have  already  seen,  that  there  are  multitudes  who  will  not  at 
tend  on  Divine  ordinances  in  the  usual  places  of  worship.  In  these 
circumstances  let  us  remember  the  wise  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers, 
"  The  gospel  is  a  message,  not  a  thing  for  which  the  people  will 
come  to  them,  but  a  thing  with  which  they  must  go  to  the 
people." 

Another  mode  of  diffusing  sacred  knowledge,  and  an  important 
pioneer  and  auxiliary  to  the  other,  is  realized  in  the  labours  of 
missionaries.  And  they  would,  we  conceive,  still  more  efficiently 
promote  their  object  by  being  trained  and  sent  forth  as  foreign 
agents  are.  It  is  delightful  to  think  of  what  has  been  accom 
plished  by  those  excellent  men  who  are  employed  in  the  London 
City  Mission,  in  inducing  Sabbath  observance  and  its  associated 
practices.  In  the  Eeports  of  the  Society  it  is  mentioned  that  in 
the  course  of  one  year  they  prevailed  on  1914  adults  regularly  to 
attend  public  worship  ;  and,  in  the  progress  of  another,  persuaded 
2736  to  follow  their  example.  They  have,  in  thousands  of  in 
stances,  influenced  persons  to  give  up  their  secular  work,  and 
families  to  keep  their  shops  shut  on  the  Lord's  day.  These  are 
only  specimens  of  results  of  the  same  nature  which  annually 
attend  their  exertions.  And  yet  a  much  larger  field  might  be 
occupied  if  there  were  only  more  abundant  pecuniary  means.  Is 
it  not  painful  in  the  extreme  to  reflect  that  multitudes,  by  tramp 
ling  on  the  laws  of  God  in  our  large  cities,  are  continually  pro 
voking  His  displeasure,  spreading  moral  and  physical  disease,  bur 
dening  society,  and  destroying  themselves,  when  there  are  so  many 
able  to  provide  the  means  of  healing,  in  the  fountain,  these 
waters  of  bitterness  ?. 

The  less  official  style  of  personal  appeal  and  remonstrance  by 
individuals  of  any  class  of  society  is  an  important  aid  in  the  pro 
motion  of  this  cause.  Many  instances  of  the  efficacy  of  this 
means  might  be  adduced.  We  cite  the  following.  The  late  ex- 


5S2  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

cellent  Bishop  Porteus,  when  so  infirm  as  to  require  to  be  carried, 
waited  on  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  Carlton  House,  and  by  his 
faithful  representations  procured  the  alteration,  to  another  day  of 
the  week,  of  a  meeting  which  was  held  by  the  Prince  and  some 
military  friends  regularly  on  the  Sabbath.  It  is  recorded  of  the 
Rev.  Henry  Venn,  the  author  of  the  Complete  Duty  of  Man,  that 
by  employing  persons  to  attempt,  through  persuasion,  the  repres 
sion  of  the  open  violation  of  the  Sabbath,  he  accomplished  a 
great  reformation  in  Huddersfield.1  Even  by  children  and  ser 
vants  may  the  Sabbath-breaker  be  reclaimed.  We  have  read  of 
the  former  addressing  salutary  and  successful  instruction  and  reproof 
to  their  seniors  of  that  character.  And  the  following  is  an  in 
stance  of  the  wise  and  faithful  rebuke  of  a  servant  who,  in  influ 
encing  the  object  of  it  to  amend  his  ways,  has  been  through  him 
a  blessing  to  many.  It  is  mentioned  in  the  Life  of  Fletcher  of 
Madeley,  that,  when  a  young  man  about  twenty-three,  and  em 
ployed  one  Sabbath  in  writing  some  music,  a  servant  coming  into 
his  room  looked  at  him  with  serious  concern,  and  said,  "  Sir,  I  am 
sorry  to  see  you  so  employed  on  the  Lord's  day."  At  first  his 
pride  and  resentment  were  moved  at  being  reproved  by  a  servant ; 
but  on  reflection  he  felt  that  the  reproof  was  just,  immediately 
put  away  his  music,  and  from  that  time  became  a  strict  observer 
of  the  Lord's  day.2 

The  press  is  confessedly  an  organ  of  great  power  in  the  cause 
of  either  truth  or  error,  and  one  therefore  of  which  the  friends  of 
religion  and  of  the  Sabbath  ought  largely  to  avail  themselves. 
And  certainly  as  its  earliest  was,  so  its  principal  application 
ought  to  be,  in  the  multiplication  and  circulation  of  the  most 
powerful  of  all  writings,  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Human  writings 
are  imperfect.  There  is  none  of  them  in  which  there  is  not  some 
defect  or  mistake.  Enemies  fasten  on  these  things.  But  if  fault 
be  found  with  Scripture,  it  is  without  cause.  "  We  question  if 
any  person  of  any  class  or  school  ever  read  the  Scriptures  regu 
larly  and  thoroughly  without  being  or  becoming  not  only  religious 
but  sensible  and  consistent."3  It  was  the  reading  of  a  Bible 
which  originated  the  Reformation.  And  in  our  own  days  its  truths 

i  Life,  pp.  50,  51.  2  Life,  18mo,  p.  23. 

»  Editorial  Article  in  the  Times,  August  20, 1847. 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  583 

have  diffused  knowledge,  piety,  happiness,  and  civilisation  among 
men  of  every  character,  colour,  and  clime.  Wherever  they  have 
penetrated,  human  beings  have  reverently  acknowledged  the  claims 
of  their  Creator  on  their  spirits  and  bodies,  their  substance  and 
time.  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  is  able  to  overthrow  all  error 
and  evil,  and  to  transform  the  character  of  mankind  into  the  like 
ness  of  the  Divine  nature.  It  has  a  commission  from  its  Author 
to  accomplish  this  revolution  over  the  whole  world,  and  the  com 
mission  is  accompanied  with  His  promise  of  entire  success.  What, 
then,  is  required  to  its  further  victories  over  sin  in  every  form,  is 
to  present  to  the  minds  of  men  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  with 
entire  confidence  in  its  mightiness  through  God  to  the  pulling 
down  of  strongholds.  And  that  it  is  still  "  quick  and  powerful" 
let  the  following  facts  show : — "  Dr.  Carey  mentions  that  two 
of  the  most  active  and  useful  native  preachers,  and  several 
other  brethren,  had  been  the  fruits  of  a  New  Testament  left 
at  a  shop,  and  states  also  that  early  in  1813  some  Brahmins 
and  persons  of  caste,  not  many  miles  from  Serampore,  obtained 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  met  for  Christian  worship  on  the 
Lord's  day  before  they  had  any  intercourse  with  the  missionaries, 
simply  by  reading  the  Scriptures.  These  were  baptized,  and  re 
ported  that  hundreds  of  their  neighbours  were  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  were  kept  back  from  profess 
ing  it  only  by  the  fear  of  losing  caste,  and  its  consequences." 
Mr.  Dudley,  in  his  Analysis  of  the  System  of  the  Bible  Society, 
remarks,  that  "  a  greater  regard  for  the  Sabbath  and  more  general 
and  regular  attendance  on  Divine  worship  was  another  and  early 
result  of  the  Society's  labours,  and  an  evidence  that  they  were 
not  in  vain."1 

But  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  does  not  supersede  the 
employment  of  other  publications  for  advancing  the  cause  of 
truth  and  righteousness,  provided  they  are  agreeable  to  that 
supreme  standard,  and  provided  especially  they  set  forth  and  en 
force  its  doctrines  and  laws.  Every  department  of  knowledge  and 
every  form  of  publication  may  be  rendered  tributary  to  the  de 
signs  of  Eevelationj  and  to  the  confirmation  and  defence  of  its 
great  discoveries  and  lessons.  The  Keformation  was  eminently 

i  Pp.  94   95. 


584  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

forwarded  by  the  writings  of  Luther.  What  a  blessing  to  the 
world  have  been  the  works  of  Baxter,  Owen,  Bunyan,  Hervey, 
Leighton,  and  Chalmers  !  How  potent  an  instrumentality  in  our 
own  day  has  been  the  publication  of  tracts  !  Nor  must  the  lead 
ing  truths  of  Christianity,  prominent  though  the  exhibition  of 
them  ought  to  be  made,  be  the  exclusive  subjects  of  such  works. 
It  may  be  necessary  to  single  out  such  a  topic  as  that  of  the 
Sabbath  for  frequent  admonition  or  occasionally  for  full  illustra 
tion.  The  lucubrations  of  Heylyn  rendered  imperative  the  elabo 
rate  treatises  of  Owen  and  Baxter.  The  speculations  of  Paiey 
and  Whately  have  demanded  the  strictures  of  Dwight,  Holden, 
and  Wardlaw.  Prevalent  error  in  opinion,  and  sin  in  practice, 
have  called  forth  the  various  essays  by  ministers  and  working 
men  with  which  the  name  of  Henderson  stands  so  honourably 
associated.  And  have  these  labours  been  in  vain  ?  It  is  stated 
that  the  works  of  Greenham  and  Twisse  contributed  greatly  to 
promote  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in  their  times.  The 
treatises,  on  the  institution,  of  the  seventeenth  century,  constitute 
to  this  day  an  armoury  of  weapons  to  defeat  the  continually 're 
appearing,  though  frequently  demolished,  arguments  of  its  ene 
mies.  How  much  in  recent  times  have  the  works  of  Horsley, 
Edwards,  and  many  others,  corroborated  the  influence  of  the  pul 
pit,  and  reassured  the  courage  of  the  members  of  their  respective 
communions,  and  of  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath  generally,  as  well 
as  rolled  back  the  tide  of  error  and  evil !  And  most  encouraging, 
too,  has  been  the  success  of  smaller  works.  The  movement  in 
Germany,  afterwards  to  be  mentioned,  was  essentially  aided  by  the 
issuing  of  addresses,  in  thousands  of  copies,  on  Sabbath  celebration, 
and  by  the  circulation  of  the  Pearl  of  Days,  and  other  prize  essays. 
The  sowing  broadcast  of  many  treatises  and  tracts  over  England 
and  Scotland,  within  these  few  years,  has  resulted  in  a  rich 
harvest.  But  perhaps  the  most  effective  use  of  the  press  has  been 
made  by  the  Sabbath  Union  of  America,  which,  with  the  energy 
characteristic  of  the  nation,  has  not  only  sent  forth  its  secretary 
over  the  whole  country  to  promote  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath, 
by  addressing  meetings,  and  by  interviews  with  influential  indi 
viduals,  but  scattered  in  great  profusion  its  Reports  and  Permanent 
Documents,  in  which  the  whole  question  is  dealt  with  scriptur- 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  586 

ally,  and  brought  home  by  striking  facts  to  men's  business  and 
bosoms. 

One  of  the  most  important  agencies  for  promoting  reverence  for 
the  Sabbath  and  religion  in  general,  and  thus  for  advancing  all  the 
great  interests  of  society,  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  parents.  To 
them  it  belongs  to  train  up  the  young  in  their  earliest  and  most 
susceptible  days,  by  instruction,  example,  and  government,  in  the 
knowledge  and  practice  of  all  excellence.  And  not  the  least  effec 
tual  of  the  means  which  they  ought  to  employ  is  the  exercise  of 
the  authority  with  which  they  have  been  intrusted  by  the  Supreme 
Ruler.  The  language  of  God  to  Abraham  is  their  warrant  for 
making  use  of  this  power  :  "  I  know  him,  that  he  will  command 
his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the 
way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judgment ;  that  the  Lord  may 
bring  upon  Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him."1  Their 
duty  is  taught  them  by  a  case,  than  which  nothing  in  conduct  and 
results  can  be  conceived  more  unlike  the  procedure  of  the  father  of 
the  faithful,  and  its  consequences — the  case  of  Eli,  who  wli^n  his 
sons  made  themselves  vile  restrained  them  not.  Parental  neglect 
is  one  of  the  chief  occasions  of  the  ignorance,  immorality,  and  irre- 
ligion  of  a  country.  And  we  may  add  that  there  is  nothing  in 
which  parents  are  so  apt  to  fail,  as  in  the  exercise  of  their  autho 
rity  over  their  offspring.  Although  all  other  means  were  employed, 
if  they  are  on  the  one  hand  too  indulgent,  or  on  the  other  too 
severe,  what  would  avail  those  means  1  The  young  will  too  fre 
quently  in  such  a  case  despise  the  inconsistent  teaching  and  example, 
or  be  driven  from  a  path  which  they  are  not  allowed  in  their 
homes  to  find  a  way  of  pleasantness  and  a  path  of  peace.  Equally 
necessary  is  the  practice  of  two  injunctions  if  a  population  is  to  be 
trained  to  fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments  :  "  Correct  thy 
son,  and  he  shall  give  thee  rest ;  yea,  he  shall  give  delight  unto 
thy  soul."2  "  Ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath  ; 
but  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."3 

The  example  of  consistent  character  and  deportment  is  a  means 
of  good  which  all  Christians  may  employ,  and  which  every  one  is 
capable  of  appreciating  as  well  as  most  prepared  to  feel  and  respect 
The  law  of  Christ  applies  to  this,  as  to  all  other  departments  of 

i  Gen,  xviii.  19.  2  Prov.  xxix.  17.  *  Eph.  vi.  4 


586  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

duty  :  "  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  also  may 
see  your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven.'' 
The  exemplary  conduct  of  the  humblest  person  has  the  most  power 
ful  influence  over  a  family,  and  over  all  who  have  occasion  to 
observe  it.  But  the  power  of  such  example  is  the  greater  that 
the  individual  occupies  a  high  standing  in  the  church  or  in  society 
— such,  for  instance,  as  the  cases  of  a  Sir  M.  Hale,  a  Howard, 
a  Wilberforce,  and  a  R  Hall,  all  of  whom  were  distinguished  by 
their  sacred  regard  to  the  Lord's  day.  No  apparent  improvement 
may  in  some  instances  be  the  result  in  those  who  witness  the 
example,  but  benefit  is  frequently  the  obvious,  and  still  more  fre 
quently  the  actual  effect.  No  good  action  is  lost.  It  is  ever 
beneficial  to  him  who  performs  it.  It  is  approved  by  the  Judge 
of  all.  When  seen,  it  is  a  witness  for  Him.  And  the  influence 
of  the  character  and  the  deeds  of  the  good  operates  in  ways  and 
to  an  extent,  which,  whether  known  or  not  to  them,  are  incalcul 
able  in  their  beneficent  amount.  Such  men  are  the  light  of  the 
world,  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

Of  many  instances  in  which  persons  under  the  authority  of 
others  have  been  ready  to  sacrifice  their  means  of  support  for  the 
sake  of  a  good  conscience,  we  particularize  that  of  an  overseer  in  a 
factory  at  Manchester,  related  by  the  Bishop  of  Chester  at  a  public 
meeting.  Being  told  by  one  of  the  proprietors  on  a  Saturday  that 
his  attendance  would  be  necessary  next  day,  when  certain  repairs 
in  the  machinery  were  to  be  made,  he  replied  that  he  regretted 
much  to  disobey  his  employer,  but  he  could  not  attend  at  work  on 
the  Sunday.  "  Then,"  said  the  proprietor,  "  you  will  come  on 
that  day,  or  you  will  not  come  again  at  all."  In  the  course  of 
the  Monday  following,  his  employer  sent  for  him,  and  asked  why 
it  was  that  he  had  not  returned  :  the  man  said  that  after  what 
had  been  told  him  on  the  Saturday,  he  did  not  consider  himself 
at  liberty  to  return.  "  Oh  !"  said  his  employer,  "perhaps  I  was 
a  little  hasty  in  what  I  said :  attend  in  your  place  as  usual."  See 
the  value  of  a  man  of  principle  !  It  was  felt  by  one  who  perhaps 
disregarded  the  religious  feeling  on  which  the  principle  was  founded, 
but  who  still  set  a  just  value  on  the  individual  who  conscientiously 
adhered  to  it.1  Instances  of  many  others  in  various  situations  in 

i  Missionary  Register  for  1836,  p.  313. 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  587 

life,  who  have  acted  with  equal  firmness  in  similar  circumstances, 
must  be  known  to  our  readers.  The  person  who  so  acts  performs 
a  valuable  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Sabbath.  Let  others,  put 
ting  their  trust  in  the  Lord  of  the  institution,  the  Proprietor  of 
the  earth  and  its  fulness,  go  and  do  likewise. 

Ellis,  in  his  Polynesian  Researches,  states  that  the  example  of 
the  missionaries  in  Tahiti  led  to  the  strict  and  general  observance 
of  the  Lord's  day  by  the  nation  at  large,  and  that  the  prevailing 
attention  to  the  public  worship  of  God,  and  the  exemplary  Chris 
tian  deportment  of  many  of  the  people,  have  proved  not  only  de 
lightful,  but  beneficial  to  their  visitors.;  there  being  probably  many 
instances  of  good  besides,  which  the  revelations  of  the  last  day 
alone  will  disclose.  It  would  be  well  that  a  similar  example  were 
set  by  the  multitude  of  our  countrymen  who  visit  foreign  lands 
for  other  purposes  than  those  of  missionary  enterprise.  How  de 
sirable  that  they  should  bear  with  them  the  thought,  "  Thou  God 
seest  me,"  and  that,  constrained  by  His  love,  they  should  spend 
His  day  according  to  the  commandment,  and  as  every  Christian 
delights  to  do.  The  following  cases  might  supply  a  directory  and 
stimulus  :  "  This  day,  being  Sunday,"  writes  a  Christian  traveller, 
"  was  devoted  to  repose.  The  want  of  religious  ordinances  is  the 
greatest  of  all  privations.  May  I  henceforth  duly  estimate  the 
privileges  of  my  native  land."1  "  We  remained  all  day  (Sunday) 
in  Wady  Sudr.  We  had  determined  before  setting  off  from  Cairo, 
always  to  rest  on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  if  possible  ;  and  during 
all  our  journeys  in  the  Holy  Land,  we  were  never  compelled  to 
break  over  this  rule  but  once.  Strange  as  it  may  at  first  seem, 
these  Sabbaths  in  the  desert  had  a  peculiar  charm,  and  left  upon 
the  mind  an  impression  which  never  can  be  forgotten."2 

Example  may  operate  where  its  living  form  was  not  seen,  and 
far  beyond  the  sphere  in  which  it  shone.  A  medical  gentleman 
acknowledged  that  it  was  his  reading  that  Mr.  Hey  of  Leeds  rarely 
missed  attending  the  morning  and  afternoon  service  of  the  church, 
which  led  him  to  arrange  his  time  better,  and  follow  the  same 
plan.  This  occurred  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  he  never 
had  altered  the  practice.3  A  correspondent  of  the  Record  news- 

1  Remains  of  the  late  A.  L.  Ross,  p.  379.  2  Robinson's  Palestine,  1.  p.  94 

»  W.  Brown,  Esq.  late  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeona 


588  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

paper  stated,  some  years  ago,  that  the  debate  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  Lord's-day  Bill,  and  the  serious  manner  in  which 
it  was  conducted,  had  been  noticed  in  more  than  one  of  the  leading 
newspapers  at  Paris,  and  that  one  of  them  directs  the  particular 
attention  of  its  readers  to  this  part  of  the  British  character  as 
worthy  of  imitation.  "  Thus,"  the  writer  justly  remarks,  "  Sir 
Andrew  Agnew  and  his  associates  in  Parliament  are  in  reality  act 
ing  on  all  Europe,  though  apparently  only  on  England  and  the 
sister  kingdoms." 

When  a  duty  is  performed  in  circumstances  of  strong  tempta 
tion  to  an  opposite  course,  the  example  has  increased  claims  to  our 
consideration  and  respect.  It  required  no  small  measure  of  prin 
ciple  in  Wilberforce,  when,  a  Minister  of  State  having  called  upon 
him  on  some  public  business  on  a  Sunday,  he  at  once  excused 
himself,  saying  he  would  wait  upon  his  Lordship  at  any  hour  he 
might  fix  the  next  day,  but  he  was  then  going  to  church ;  this, 
too,  after  he  had  already  attended  the  morning  service.1  Still 
stronger  was  the  temptation  of  a  command,  addressed  by  a  late 
King  to  an  excellent  person  still  living,  to  dine  with  his  Majesty 
on  a  Sabbath-day,  and  the  polite  declining  of  the  intended  honour, 
received  without  offence,  did  credit  to  both  the  subject  and  his 
Prince.2  But  to  act  such  a  part  towards  one  from  whom  some 
thing  worse  than  displeasure  may  be  apprehended,  is  to  encounter 
a  greater  temptation  still,  and  to  evince  a  higher  degree  of  cour 
age.  There  were  those  who  boldly  refused  to  read  the  Book  of 
Sports  from  their  pulpits  in  the  times  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I., 
though  liable  thereby  to  suspension.  Dr.  Twisse  was  one  of  these 
faithful  men.  He  even  warned  his  people  against  Sabbath  pro 
fanation.  It  was  to  the  credit  of  James  that  he  gave  secret 
orders  not  to  molest  the  Doctor.  When  Charles  renewed  the 
edict,  he  preached  and  published  on  the  subject,  "  which  pro 
duced  a  powerful  impression  on  the  public  mind  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath." 

There  is  a  special  obligation  lying  on  persons  of  high  standing 
in  society  to  exemplify  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion,  since 
the  more  elevated  the  station  the  more  conspicuous  and  regarded 
is  the  individual.  And  it  is  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  refer  to  in- 

i  Scott's  Discourse  on  Wilberforce,  p.  29.  2  Life  of  Lady  Colqulwun,  106-].r>Q. 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  589 

stances  of  the  union  of  piety  and  rank  in  such  men  as  were  Lords 
Harrington,  Dartmouth,  Teignmouth,  Gambier,  and  Earl  Ducie. 
Nor  is  it  impossible  for  those  in  the  very  highest  grade  of  earthly 
distinction,  amidst  all  the  pleasures,  temptations,  and  cares  of  a 
throne,  to  be  patterns  of  Sabbath  observance.  It  was  a  king  who 
delighted  to  go  with  the  multitude  that  kept  holy  day  ;  who  was 
glad  when  it  was  said,  Let  us  go  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  ; 
who  would  have  preferred  being  a  door-keeper  in  the  house  of  his 
God,  to  dwelling  in  the  tents  of  wickedness  ;  and  who  esteemed  a 
day  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord  better  than  a  thousand  anywhere 
else.  Kings  and  emperors  have  followed  his  example.  King 
George  in.  evinced,  in  various  ways,  his  veneration  for  the  law  of 
the  Sabbath.  "  To  every  pious  subject  it  must  be  a  source  of 
lively  satisfaction  to  know  that  in  the  pavilion  itself  originated 
measures  which  have  materially  tended  to  promote  the  better 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  in  Brighton.  It  is  said  that  there 
were  certain  arrangements  in  the  royal  household  which  unde- 
signedly  entailed  a  large  amount  of  Sunday  labour  ;  but  when 
the  facts  were  represented  to  Queen  Adelaide,  she  immediately  com 
manded  that  the  orders  in  question  should  be  given  on  Monday 
instead  of  Saturday  as  heretofore.  And  this  act  of  Christian 
consideration  has  been  extensively  copied,  to  the  great  relief  of 
many  a  laundress,  who  formerly  could  not  remember  the  Sabbath 
day  to  keep  it  holy.  In  unison  with  this  tribute  to  the  Divine 
command,  was  the  injunction  of  our  present  Queen,  forbidding 
the  exhibition,  on  the  Lord's  day,  of  the  State  apartments  at 
Windsor  Castle  ;  an  act  which,  along  with  Her  Majesty's  patron 
age  of  the  Sabbath  observance  movement  among  the  working 
classes,  has  given  a  much-loved  sovereign  an  additional  claim  to 
the  gratitude  and  attachment  of  a  Christian  people."1 

"  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labour  in  vain  that 
build  it  :  except  the  JLord  keep  the  city,  the  watchman  waketh 
but  in  vain."  Whence  but  from  Divine  patronage  has  a  day  of 
sacred  rest,  so  opposed  to  the  avarice,  love  of  pleasure,  and  irre- 
ligion  of  the  world,  which  give  birth  to  so  many  opinions  and 
practices  tending  to  obliterate  its  name  from  the  calendar,  main 
tained,  notwithstanding,  its  ground,  and  been  not  only  valued  by 

1  Life  of  Lady  Colquhoun,  pp.  159,  160. 


590  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

men  of  the  world,  but  venerated,  loved,  and  observed  by  Chris- 
tians  2  And  on  what  other  power  than  that  of  its  Author  can 
we  justly  depend  for  the  preservation  and  universal  prevalence  of 
the  institution,  when  the  human  mind  is  naturally  as  much  as 
ever  liable  to  error,  and  prone  to  evil,  in  regard  to  this  as  well  as 
all  the  doctrines  and  laws  of  a  kingdom  which  is  not  of  this 
world  1  All  hearts  and  events  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty. 
His  own  institutions  are  under  His  special  care,  and  He  can  easily 
secure  for  them  favour  and  honour.  To  Him,  therefore,  ought  we 
to  come ;  in  Him  repose  our  confidence,  for  guidance,  help,  and 
success  in  every  plan  that  we  adopt,  and  in  every  exertion  that  we 
put  forth  on  behalf  of  the  day  which  He  has  consecrated  for  Him 
self,  and  blessed  for  man. 

It  promises  well  for  our  cause  when  the  paramount  importance 
of  this  remedy  is  practically  recognised.  In  the  Stuttgard  Con 
ference  of  1850,  at  which  about  two  thousand  Christians  of  all 
the  countries  of  Germany  were  assembled,  an  address  was  agreed 
to,  in  which,  after  various  useful  suggestions,  it  is  stated,  "  But, 
above  all,  every  one  should  pray  often  and  ardently  to  the  Lord 
our  God,  that  the  Sabbath  celebration  may  be  restored  amongst 
his  people,  and  that  all  Governments  and  Chambers  of  Deputies 
may  understand  how  pernicious  it  is  fcr  the  people  if  this  duty  is 
more  and  more  disregarded,  by  the  example  of  persons  high  in 
station,  by  working  in  the  Government  offices,  by  military  reviews, 
by  meetings  of  the  public,  and  of  societies,  during  the  hours  of 
Divine  worship,  by  noisy  or  immoral  public  feasts,  and  by  a  lax 
legislature  ;"  and  at  which,  in  addition,  it  was,  on  the  motion  of 
the  Rev.  S.  C.  Kapff,  resolved  "  That  the  third  Sabbath  of  every 
month  should  be  a  day  for  common  prayer  with  all  the  evangeli 
cal  Christians  of  Germany,  especially  on  behalf  of  Home  Missions 
and  Sabbath  observance."  "We  know,"  adds  the  relator,  "that 
this  resolution  did  not  remain  without  consequences — that  new 
prayer-meetings  were  established  ;  and,  we  trust,  if  the  number  of 
Christians  increase  who  pray  for  Sabbath  celebration,  that  the 
Lord  will  also  send  us  an  abundant  answer,  in  a  better  observance 
of  His  holy  day."1  That  answer  has  been  sent.  For  of  the  year 
1855  we  have  to  present  the  following  gratifying  statements  : — • 

i  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  pp.  471,  477,  478. 


DESECRATION REMEDIES.  591 

*  In  Prussia,  Wiirtemberg,  Baden,  Sabbath  observance  has  un 
doubtedly  improved  in  the  course  of  the  last  years.  Not  only 
stricter  laws  of  former  times  have  been  enjoined,  but  what  is  of 
greater  importance,  public  opinion,  as  also  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  people,  have  been  ameliorated."  This  was  written 
in  July  of  that  year.  The  writer,  referring  again  to  the  subject 
in  the  following  month,  observes,  "  Though  much  remains  to  be 
done  for  the  better  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in  Germany,  yet, 
as  I  remarked  in  my  last  letter,  in  many,  if  not  in  most,  countries 
an  improvement  is  going  on."1 

The  same  spirit  has  actuated  Christians  in  this  land,  and  has 
undoubtedly  been  the  means  of  carrying  our  ark  over  many  a 
raging  billow,  and  deepened  the  interest  of  our  people  in  its 
future  safety.  Members  of  Parliament,  while  pleading  its  cause 
with  man,  did  not  forget  to  present  their  suit  at  a  higher 
tribunal.  When  the  friends  of  the  Sabbath  were  employing  on 
its  behalf  the  eloquence  of  the  orator  and  the  power  of  the  press, 
they  neglected  not  to  unite  their  petitions  at  the  throne  of  grace. 
In  circumstances  the  most  inauspicious  to  such  a  spirit  has  it 
been  evoked  and  prevailed.  We  give  an  interesting  example. 
For  three  years  the  men  on  the  Mersey  and  Jrwell  had  petitioned 
their  employers  to  be  emancipated  from  Sabbath  slavery,  and 
their  petitions  had  no  effect.  At  length  some  of  them  said, 
"We  have  tried  men  without  effect ;  let  us  appeal  to  God." 
For  six  weeks  before  the  next  annual  meeting  of  their  masters, 
they  humbly  besought  God  to  put  it  into  their  hearts  to  comply 
with  their  request ;  they  did  that  which,  whether  it  proceed  from 
the  cottage  or  the  palace,  from  the  prince  or  the  peasant,  is  sure 
to  produce  a  favourable  result — they  offered  prayer  in  faith.  The 
result  was  that,  after  some  demur  on  the  part  of  one  or  two  indi 
viduals,  the  masters  at  length  unanimously  resolved  to  comply 
with  their  request.  The  sailing  of  thirty-nine  boats  on  the  canal 
was  stopped  on  Sabbath. 

These  things  are  well.  But  it  is  not  an  outwardly-guarded 
and  respected  Sabbath,  however  important  and  desirable  this  is, 
that  will  satisfy  the  Divine  claims  or  human  necessities.  The 
institution  must  be  loved  and  venerated  as  the  appointment  of 

i  News  of  the  Chunk*,  vol.  ii.  pp.  186,  205 


592  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

Heaven,  and  kept  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  heart.  How  can  this 
be  attained,  however,  without  the  saving  knowledge  and  faith  of 
the  gospel,  produced  by  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  of  Go-d,  or  how 
can  the  bestowal  of  this  agency  be  secured  but  by  prayer  ? 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  will  yet  for  this  be  inquired  of  by 
the  house  of  Israel  to  do  it  for  them."  "  Ye  that  make  mention 
of  the  Lord,  keep  not  silence,  and  give  him  no  rest  till  he  estab 
lish  and  make  Jerusalem  a  praise  in  the  earth/'  "  Arise,  0  God, 
plead  thine  own  cause,  remember  how  the  foolish  man  reproacheth 
thee  daily." 

PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  OUR  CAUSE. 

The  friends  of  the  Sabbath  have,  we  trust,  such  a  regard  for 
truth,  as  to  preserve  them  from  consciously  understating  the 
amount  of  Sabbath  profanation  as  it  exists  in  this  country  or  in 
foreign  lands.  Honesty  is  in  this,  as  in  everything  else,  the  best 
policy,  the  policy  in  the  present  case  being  fully  to  set  forth  the 
evil,  that  every  man  who  "  desireth  life,  and  loveth  many  days, 
that  he  may  see  good,"  and  who  would  wish  others  to  enjoy  the 
same  blessings,  may  be  roused  to  efforts  for  its  removal.  For  let 
it  be  true,  that  the  words  of  Shakspere  describe  a  case,  not  now  of 
rare  but  of  common  occurrence  on  the  Continent  : — 

"Why  such  impress  of  shipwrights,  whose  sore  task 
Does  not  divide  the  Sunday  from  the  week  ? 
What  might  be  toward,  that  this  sweaty  haste 
Doth  make  the  night  joint-labourer  with  the  day  ? 
Who  is  't  that  can  inform  me  ?  " 

and  that  the  language  of  Wordsworth  is  not  yet  obsolete  as  a  de 
scription  of  England, — 

"  Where  now  the  beauty  of  the  Sabbath  kept 
With  conscientious  reverence,  as  a  day 
By  the  Almighty  Lawgiver  pronounced 
Holy  and  blest?" 

— we  have,  nevertheless,  the  confidence,  that  great  though  the  enor 
mity  is,  there  is  in  the  truth  and  in  prayer  an  adequate  instrument 
ality  for  coping  with  it,  and  in  the  Divine  agency  and  promises  a 
perfect  guarantee  of  victory.  And  we  owe  it  as  a  tribute  to  the 


PEOGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  593 

glory  of  the  Author  of  the  Sabbath,  as  well  as  an  encouragement 
to  those  who  are  fighting  its  battles,  to  adduce  some  further  illus 
trative  instances  of  the  success  that  has  crowned  the  exertions  of 
its  friends,  and  that  heralds  its  coming  triumph. 

A  considerable  volume  might  be  filled  with  the  facts  which 
show  how  auspicious  have  been  the  attempts  of  missionaries  to 
plant  the  institution  among  various  classes  of  Pagans,  notwith 
standing  the  aversion  to  sacred  exercises  and  restraints  that  must 
especially  be  felt  by  men  previously  accustomed  to  a  wild  freedom 
on  all  days,  or  to  a  galling  bondage  on  six  days  of  the  week.  Let 
a  few  of  the  many  particulars  that  might  be  adduced  suffice. 
When  slavery  was  the  law  and  practice  in  the  West  Indies,  the 
Sabbath  was  the  market-day,  and  the  day  selected  for  the  punish 
ment  of  the  slaves.  That  was  a  noted  time  of  immorality.  Con 
trast  with  this  the  following  : — "  Among  other  pleasing  features 
presented  by  this  station,"  it  was  reported  of  Hampden,  in  Jamaica, 
"  the  progress  of  marriage  among  the  negroes  is  not  the  least 
encouraging.  The  number  of  couples  which  have  been  married 
since  its  commencement  amount  to  511.  A  great  improvement 
has  taken  place  in  regard  to  the  observation  of  the  Lord's  day. 
Public  worship  is  not  only  well  attended,  but  the  Sabbath  is, 
in  other  respects,  sanctified  in  a  manner,  which,  considering  the 
former  habits  of  the  negroes,  is  truly  surprising.  Prayer-meetings 
are  established  in  every  district  of  the  congregation.  Family- 
worship  is  observed  in  many  of  their  dwellings,  unity  and  brotherly 
love  prevail,  parents  are  more  anxious  for  the  instruction  of  their 
children,  and  more  careful  in  watching  over  their  morals.  A 
Bible  and  Missionary  Society  has  been  formed  in  the  congregation, 
which,  in  the  first  eleven  months,  raised  £150  currency.  Tem 
perance  societies  have  also  been  established,  which  number  no 
fewer  than  593  members.  A  session  has  been  formed  in  the 
congregation,  which  takes  the  entire  charge  of  the  discipline  of 
the  church  ;  and  though  nearly  all  the  elders  are,  or  lately  were, 
apprentices,  they  discharge  the  duties  of  their  office  with  propriety, 
zeal,  and  prudence,  firmness  and  fidelity.  Mr.  Blyth" — the  Rev. 
George  Blyth,  the  missionary  at  the  station — "  has  also  begun  a 
system  of  family  visitation  similar  to  what  prevails  in  many  of  the 
best  regulated  congregations  in  this  country."  "  Altogether,"  Mr. 

2  P 


594  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

B.  says,  "  this  part  of  the  island  has  assumed  the  aspect  of  a 
Christian  country."1  Of  Lucea,  another  missionary  station  in 
Jamaica,  the  Rev.  James  Watson,  the  missionary,  reported  :  "  The 
improvement  of  the  Black  population  is  particularly  remarkable. 
It  is  astonishing  to  see  the  change  that  has  been  wrought  upon 
them  in  so  short  a  space  of  time.  In  a  merely  civil  point  of  view, 
it  is  exceedingly  interesting.  They  seem  much  more  cheerful, 
and  much  more  attentive  to  matters  of  decency  and  propriety  of 
conduct  than  formerly.  Marriage  is  now  rapidly  advancing  among 
them.  Hundreds  have  left  off  their  former  mode  of  living,  and 
have  entered  into  this  honourable  relation  within  the  last  year. 
The  Sabbath  is  almost  universally  observed  as  a  day  of  rest  by 
an  entire  cessation  of  everything  in  the  shape  of  work."2  As  it 
is  in  Jamaica,  so  also  in  the  South  Sea  Islands.  Stewart,  in  his 
Visit  to  the  South,  Seas,  devotes  a  chapter  (or  letter)  to  a  de 
scription  of  a  Tahitian  Sabbath  in  1829,  concluding  with  these 
words,  "  The  whole  external  observance  of  the  day  by  the  natives, 
in  a  suspension  of  all  ordinary  occupations  and  amusements,  was 
such  as  to  be  worth  the  imitation  of  older  and  more  enlightened 
Christian  nations "  (p.  253).  The  well-known  and  excellent  mis 
sionary,  Mr.  Pritchard,  confirms  this  testimony  :  "On  almost  all 
the  islands  where  the  gospel  has  been  introduced,  and  the  people 
have  made  a  profession  of  Christianity,  a  most  diligent  attention 
is  paid  to  the  public  ordinances  of  religion.  This  is  particularly 
the  case  in  those  stations  which  are  not  visited  by  foreign  ship 
ping.  They  very  strictly  observe  the  Sabbath.  Their  food  for 
the  Sabbath  is  cooked  on  the  Saturday,  consequently  none  are 
detained  from  a  place  of  worship,  to  cook  hot  dinners  on  the 
Sabbath,  as  is  so  common  in  England  even  among  professing 
Christians.  They  usually  attend  three  services  on  the  Sabbath. 
The  first  is  a  prayer-meeting  held  early  in  the  morning.  These 
meetings  are  generally  well  attended.  It  would  be  considered  a 
great  disgrace  for  a  church  member  to  absent  himself  from  the 
prayer-meeting.  All  who  profess  to  feel  any  concern  about  good 
things  will  be  there.  Most  of  the  natives  consider  it  as  import 
ant  to  attend  the  prayer-meeting  as  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 

1  Sketches  by  Dr.  W.  Brown,  Secretary  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  in  Chris 
tian  Tcaclier,  vol.  i.  p.  504.  «  Ibid.  p.  565. 


PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  595 

It  is  exceedingly  interesting  at  these  meetings  to  hear  how  par 
ticularly  and  affectionately  they  pray  for  their  missionaries,  for  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  generally,  and  for  the  increase  of  vital 
religion  in  their  own  hearts,  and  especially  for  the  best  of  bless 
ings  to  rest  upon  their  Christian  friends  in  Britain,  who  have  sent 
them  the  gospel.  In  the  forenoon  there  is  usually  a  very  full 
attendance.  Some  of  the  chapels  are  so  crowded  that  many 
persons  have  to  sit  outside.  On  these  occasions  most  of  them  are 
neatly  dressed.  Many  of  them  take  paper  and  pencils,  and  write 
the  particulars  of  the  discourse.  But  few  congregations  in  Eng 
land  surpass  them,  in  serious  attention  and  decent  behaviour  in 
the  house  of  God.  At  the  close  of  the  afternoon  service  many  of 
them  frequently  stop,  to  talk  over  what  they  have  heard  through 
the  day,  and  to  pray  that  the  seed  which  has  been  sown  may 
spring  up  and  produce  an  abundant  harvest.  Besides  attending 
schools  daily,  they  have  two  religious  services  each  week." l  We 
find  the  same  spirit  among  the  converts  of  New  Zealand  :  "It 
was  customary  with  the  missionaries  on  their  first  settling  in 
New  Zealand  to  erect  a  flag  at  their  station  on  the  Sabbath-day, 
and  this  was  the  sign  for  many  distant  tribes  of  natives  to  desist 
from  work,  or  from  war  ;  indeed,  they  seem  to  have  shown  at  a 
very  early  period  of  the  mission  a  decided  respect  and  honour  for 
the  Sabbath,  which  the  missionaries  told  them  was  set  apart  by 
them  in  honour  of  the  '  Atua  nue,'  the  Great  Jehovah." 2  Mr. 
Davis,  a  missionary,  says,  "  Our  chapel  could  not  contain  the 
whole  of  our  congregation  yesterday  ;  so  that  we  shall  have  to 
enlarge  it  as  soon  as  possible.  Ripi  and  his  party  continue  to 
listen  with  attention,  and  are  steady  in  their  attendance  on  the 
means  of  grace.  The  manner  in  which  the  Lord's  day  is  kept 
by  this  tribe  would  shame  many  country  parishes  in  England, 
even  where  the  gospel  is  faithfully  preached.  Their  firewood  is 
always  prepared,  and  their  potatoes  scraped  and  got  ready,  on 
the  Saturday  afternoon,  to  be  cooked  on  the  Sunday ;  and  this  is 
no  new  thing,  as  they  have  proceeded  in  this  way  now  for  a  long 
time."3 

We  must  content  ourselves  with  only  a  few  more  illustrations. 

l  Pritchard's  Missionary  Reward,  pp.  78-80. 

*  Mutionary  Guide-Book,  p.  279.  3  Ramsden's  Miuiont,  p.  19L 


596  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

derived  chiefly  from  the  lately  published  and  very  interesting 
volume,  Nineteen  Tears  in  Polynesia,  by  the  Rev.  George  Turner  : 
"  We  had  the  pleasure  of  spending  a  Sabbath  at  Eromanga,  and  met 
with  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  people  in  their  little  chapel. 
All  were  quiet  and  orderly.  It  thrilled  our  inmost  soul  to  hear 
them,  as  led  by  Mrs.  Gordon,  strike  up  the  tune  of  '  New  Lydia,' 
and  also  the  translation  and  tune  of  '  There  is  a  happy  land.* 
Mr.  Macfarlane  and  I  addressed  them  through  Mr.  Gordon.  They 
were  startled  and  deeply  interested,  as  I  told  them  of  former  times, 
and  to  show  them  that  we  were  different  from  other  white  men 
who  had  visited  their  shores"  (pp.  487,  488).  "  We  left  Uea 
early  on  the  morning  bound  for  Guarnha,  Mr.  Creagh's  station, 
there  to  land  Mr.  Jones,  and  the  supplies  of  Mr.  Creagh,  and 
his  native  teachers.  We  were  close  in  by  nine  A.M.,  on  Sabbath, 
when  Mr.  Jones,  Mr.  Turpie,  the  first  officer,  and  I  went  on  shore 
in  the  whale-boat.  As  we  reached  the  beach,  I  had  a  vivid  recol 
lection  of  the  naked  savage  crowd  Mr.  Murray  and  I  saw  there 
on  my  first  visit  fourteen  years  ago.  TJien  some  were  painted  from 
head  to  foot,  and  all  were  armed  with  clubs,  spears,  or  tomahawks. 
Old  leui  gave  the  word  of  command,  when  an  avenue  was  formed 
for  us  to  walk  up  through  the  motley  group,  to  his  large  round 
house,  where  we  talked  to  them  of  Chrbt,  and  his  peaceful  king 
dom,  and  entreated  them  to  abandon  heathenism  and  embrace  the 
gospel.  But  how  changed  the  scene  now  !  As  Mr.  Jones,  Mr. 
Turpie,  and  I  walked  up  from  the  boat,  all  was  quiet.  It  was  the 
hour  of  Divine  service,  and  the  people  were  assembled  in  the 
chapel  on  the  rising  ground  a  little  to  the  left.  We  walked  up 
to  the  place,  a  stone  building  eighty  feet  by  sixty,  looked  in  at  the 
door,  and  saw  that  it  was  filled  with  900  attentive  worshippers. 
Mr.  Creagh  was  in  the  pulpit,  and  a  black  precentor  stood 
leading  the  whole  in  one  harmonious  song  of  praise.  I  felt  it 
quite  overpowering,  as  we  walked  up  the  aisle,  and  took  our 
places  in  the  missionary's  pew.  Mr.  Creagh  preached,  and  as 
it  was  their  day  for  administering  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  we  had  the  further  pleasure  of  uniting,  at  the  close 
of  the  morning  service,  with  the  church  of  ninety-four  mem 
bers,  in  commemorating  the  death  of  Christ"  (pp.  513,  514). 
"In  summing  up  our  progress  in  these  islands  just  visited, 


PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  597 

where  twenty  years  ago  we  had  not  a  single  missionary,  or  a 
single  convert  from  heathenism,  and  at  the  very  entrance  to  which 
John  Williams  then  fell,  we  find  that,  out  of  a  population,  in 
the  twelve  islands  which  we  now  occupy,  of  about  65,500  souls, 
we  have  19,743  who  have  renounced  heathenism,  and  are  pro 
fessedly  Christian.  Of  these  there  are  645  church  members,  and 
689  who  are  candidates  for  admission  to  the  church.  And  there 
are  now  labouring  among  them  ten  European  missionaries,  and 
231  native  teachers  and  assistants.  Three  printing-presses,  also, 
are  at  work,  especially  devoted  to  the  Papuan  vernacular  of  the 
respective  islands"  (p.  533).  To  this  summary  of  what  has  been 
done  by  missionaries  in  a  single  fraction  of  the  field,  let  there  be 
added  a  mere  outline,  sketched  by  us  some  years  ago,  of  the 
achievements  of  such  men  within  little  more  than  half  a  century 
over  the  world,  and  we  feel  ourselves  warranted,  as  we  said  then, 
to  challenge  any  one  to  produce  measures  worthy  for  a  moment  to 
be  placed  in  competition  with  Christian  missions  as  the  means  of 
enlightening  and  civilizing  human  beings  :  Greenland  and  Labra 
dor  raised  from  their  deep  degradation — a  hundred  spots  in  the 
North  and  South  Pacific,  once  the  dark  domains  of  ignorance,  en 
lightened — the  reproach  of  hopeless  stupidity  wiped  away  from  the 
Hottentots,  many  of  whom  now  equal  Europeans  in  their  skill  as 
artisans — the  elevation  of  New  Zealanders,  Negroes,  and  Bush 
men,  to  the  rank  of  intelligent  beings — the  education  of  between 
300,000  and  400,000  young  persons  in  heathen  lands — the  erec 
tion  of  numerous  churches  and  school-houses — the  reduction  of 
many  languages  to  writing — the  preparation  of  millions  of  tracts 
and  books — and  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  one  hundred 
languages  spoken  by  upwards  of  half  the  human  family.  In  all 
these  cases,  the  missionaries,  after  being  themselves  trained  by  the 
help  of  the  Sabbath,  introduced  it  into  the  scenes  of  their  labours, 
where  it  has  been  as  well  observed  by  the  converts  as  in  any 
country,  and  where  it  has  performed  an  indispensable  and  not  the 
least  important  part  in  the  happy  transformation  which  the  cha 
racter  and  condition  of  many  among  the  most  uncivilized  of  our 
race  have  undergone. 

We  are  aware  of  little  that  is  pleasing  to  set  over  against  the 
deeply  shaded  picture  of  a  Popish  Sabbath  on  the  Continent  which 

26* 


598  THE  SABBATH  EJs7  FORCED. 

truth  required  us  in  some  preceding  pages  to  present.  Allowance 
must  be  made,  so  far  as  the  people  are  concerned,  on  the  ground 
of  the  ignorance  in  which  they  are  left  by  their  spiritual  guides, 
and  the  example  which  their  leaders  set  before  them.  There  have 
been  exceptions,  moreover,  among  the  clergy — one,  at  least,  ap 
pears,  the  already  mentioned  instance  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
whose  efforts,  with  those  of  M.  de  Montalembert,  to  secure  a  bet 
ter-observed  Sabbath  in  France,  were  deserving  of  no  slight  praise, 
notwithstanding  that  they  have  not  been  so  successful  as  every 
friend  of  the  institution  would  desire.  A  writer,  in  a  work  re 
peatedly  drawn  upon,  observes,  "  It  seemed  to  me  that  in  Pro 
testant  countries  public  Sabbath  desecration  never  proceeded  to 
so  great  a  length  as  in  Catholic  districts."1  In  his  opinion,  so 
far  as  our  limited  observation  has  gone,  we  are  disposed  to  con 
cur.  "We  found  Geneva,  in  1851,  not  so  bad  in  respect  of  Sab 
bath  desecration  as  we  have  seen  it  described,  or  as  Lucerne 
and  Frankfort-on-the-Maine.  The  streets  of  the  city  of  Calvin 
were  tolerably  quiet,  as  much  so  as  in  some  of  our  English  towns, 
though  we  have  been  informed  that  many  of  the  inhabitants  re 
pair  to  the  environs,  and  had  the  testimony  of  a  rattling  sound  as 
we  passed  along  that  others  retreated  to  the  billiard  room,  for 
the  purposes  of  amusement.  In  Basle  and  Amsterdam  we  saw 
in  numerous  strollers,  and  their  levity,  an  evidence  that  there 
were  many  who  had  no  reverence  for  the  first  day  of  the  week  ; 
but  the  shops  were  not  generally  open  or  business  carried  on  as 
in  Lucerne.  In  1861,  we  had  an  opportunity  of  contrasting 
Basle,  which  seemed  improved  since  we  had  seen  it  ten  years  be 
fore,  though  we  noticed  some  open  shops,  with  Roman  Catholic 
Macon  in  France,  where,  after  mass  was  over,  the  population, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  sober,  devout  Protestants,  appeared  to 
be  "  wholly  given  to  idolatry  " — the  idolatry  of  spectacles,  music, 
and  wine.  There  are,  moreover,  such  symptoms  of  conviction  on 
the  part  of  not  a  few  of  the  inhabitants  of  Continental  countries 
that  religion  is  low,  and  so  much  anxiety  for  better  things  as 
themselves  evince  progress  and  improvement.  Take  Germany, 
where  Protestantism  is  so  encompassed  by  the  contaminating 
influence  of  Popery ;  and  it  may  be  said  that,  while  it  had  de- 

1  Eeligion&  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  466. 


PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  599 

clined  from  the  Sabbath-keeping  of  the  Reformers,  earlier  and 
later,  there  have  ever  been  "  faithful  Christians,  who,  in  their 
small  circles,  observed  the  commandment — faithful  working  men 
who  did  no  work  on  Sabbath-day,  faithful  merchants  who  sold 
nothing  on  Sabbath-day — that  though  the  number  of  these  faith 
ful  men  was  small,  and  though  their  voice  expired  in  the  vast 
desert,  they  ardently  desired  reformation — and  that  the  object 
which  they  longed  for  is  in  our  day  beginning  to  be  attained." l 
The  events  of  1848,  and  the  circulation  of  the  English  Sabbath 
prize  essays,  gave  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  cause  of  the  Sabbath 
in  Germany.  Conferences  at  Wittenberg  and  Stuttgard  took  up 
the  question  with  great  earnestness.  Addresses  to  the  German 
nation  and  Governments  were  published.  The  address  to  the 
people  recommended  the  following  things  : — "  1st.  All  should  be 
prepared  on  Saturday,  that  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  do  any 
labour  in  the  household  on  Sunday.  2d.  Every  one  should  dine 
very  plainly  on  the  Sabbath-day,  that  the  servants  may  have  time 
to  attend  the  services  of  God,  and  also  for  rest.  3d.  Every  one 
should  be  regularly  present  at  public  worship,  and  at  domestic  de 
votion.  ±th.  All  the  labour  done  on  week-days  must  be  omitted ; 
chiefly  the  payment  of  the  labourers,  the  delivering  of  finished,  or 
the  bespeaking  of  new  orders,  and  generally  all  business  and  trade. 
5th.  Children  and  servants  should  be  looked  after  most  conscien 
tiously  in  respect  of  their  employment  of  the  Sunday  ;  above  all, 
that  every  one  should  pray  often  and  ardently  to  the  Lord  our 
God,  that  the  Sabbath  celebration  may  be  restored  amongst  His 
people."  Petitions,  moreover,  were  presented  to  the  Prussian 
Government.  The  results  were  encouraging.  The  post-offices  in 
Prussia  were  shut  from  9  to  12  A.M.,  and  from  1  to  5  P.M.  The 
Government  expressed  its  desire  to  stop  the  running  of  the  rail 
ways,  which  was  resisted  by  the  mercantile  boards.  The  Chamber 
of  Deputies  in  Saxony,  in  consequence  of  the  petition  of  a  clergy 
man,  resolved  unanimously  to  recommend  to  the  Government  the 
strict  enforcement  of  the  law  of  1811,  with  respect  to  the  celebra 
tion  of  the  Lord's  day.  Similar  measures  were  adopted  in  the 
kingdom  of  Hanover,  and  in  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick.  To  all 
these  efforts  must  be  added  the  means  employed  with  success  by 

1  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  467. 


600  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

voluntary  societies,  and  eminent  individuals,  to  promote  the  great 
object.  It  is  painful  to  have  to  say  that  the  authorities  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Hesse  were  opposed  to  the  movement,  and  that 
the  only  step  towards  reformation  was  a  resolution,  "  that  public 
dancing  parties  and  music  be  closed  on  Saturday  at  midnight,  and 
begin  on  Sunday  only  after  the  service."  The  only  appearance  in 
Germany  in  favour  of  the  Sabbath  by  Roman  Catholics  is  the  fol 
lowing,  which,  however,  was  on  this  account  the  more  honourable 
to  the  mover  and  to  the  Government.  In  the  kingdom  of  Bavaria, 
the  Roman  bishop  applied  to  the  Government  to  protect  Sabbath 
celebration,  and  the  Government  in  consequence  republished  all 
the  laws  upon  the  subject,  and  distributed  them  to  all  the  civic 
boards  and  parishes.1 

It  was  mentioned  at  the  meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
in  Paris,  by  M.  Descombaz,  in  his  report  on  the  Sabbath,  that 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  was  diminishing  in  Switzerland. 
We  have  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  a  beneficial  change  in 
this  respect  will  come  over  that  honoured  land,  and  is  already 
begun.  There,  indeed,  we  have  had  a  Victor  Mellet,  who  was 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  ingenious  pleaders  for  anti-Sabbatic 
opinions,  and  was  the  more  dangerous  an  opponent  of  the  com 
monly  received  views,  that  he  seemed  to  have  taken  up  the 
wrong  side  so  conscientiously.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
have  a  Malan,  who  has  appeared  as  an  author  on  behalf  of  a 
sanctified  Sabbath,  the  spirit  of  which  and  of  heaven  he  has  so 
much  imbibed  ;  and  a  Merle  D'Aubignd,  who  has  more  than 
once  proclaimed  his  sympathy  with  our  Sabbath  and  with  our 
exertions  on  its  behalf,  as,  for  example,  a  few  years  ago  in  these 
words  : — "  In  Geneva  he  had  looked  to  this  Sunday  question  as 
if  England  were  his  own  country.  He  felt  that  it  was  very  im 
portant,  not  only  to  England,  but  to  the  whole  Continent.  Eng 
land  was  like  a  citadel — a  strong  tower  ;  and  if  that  tower  was 
broken  down,  what  should  be  done  ?  How  would  the  Church 
exist  without  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's  day  1  He  would  say 
to  England,  Keep  it  holy,  keep  it  holy."2  We  anticipate  much 
good  to  Switzerland  and  the  whole  continent  from  the  recent 

1  Religious  Condit'jon  of  Christendom,  pp.  467,  473. 

3  Speech  at  a  meeting  in  Liverpool.-  C.  Times,  May  30,  1856 


PROGRESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  601 

Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  at  which  the  Sabbath 
was  a  subject  of  prominent  notice.  One  result  of  that  meeting 
was  an  agreement  on  the  part  of  certain  ministers  of  Geneva  to 
preach  a  course  of  sermons  early  this  year  on  the  all-important 
theme.  The  volume  containing  the  proceedings  of  the  Conference 
will,  without  doubt,  be  largely  circulated,  and  give  an  impulse  to 
the  cause.  Indeed,  the  general  meetings,  and  the  ramifications  of 
the  Alliance,  must  have  great  influence  in  spreading  Divine  truth, 
not  only  on  the  Sabbath  question,  but  on  many  subjects  deeply 
affecting  the  interests  of  humanity. 

In  no  part  of  the  world,  perhaps,  has  more  been  successfully 
attempted  of  late  years  for  the  reformation  of  Sabbatic  abuses  and 
for  promoting  the  observance  of  the  institution  than  in  the  United 
States.  Through  the  efforts  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Sabbath 
Union  and  others  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  an  increased  attention 
was  awakened,  and  in  many  places  a  great  change  in  sentiment 
and  practice  was  effected  with  regard  to  this  subject.  We  give  a 
few  sentences  from  the  summary  of  the  good  accomplished,  as 
contained  in  the  first  Annual  Report  of  the  Union  :  "  The  trans 
portation  of  the  mails  on  the  Sabbath  has,  on  numerous  routes, 
been  discontinued ;  and  stage-coaches,  steamboats,  rail  cars,  and 
canal  boats,  have  in  many  cases  ceased  to  run  on  that  day. 
Stockholders,  directors,  distinguished  merchants,  and  civilians, 
have  expressed  the  conviction  that,  should  this  be  the  case  uni 
versally,  it  would  greatly  promote  the  welfare  of  all.  The  number 
of  those  who  go  or  send  to  the  post-office,  who  are  disposed  to 
labour,  or  engage  in  secular  business,  travelling,  or  amusement  on 
the  Sabbath,  is  diminishing,  and  the  number  is  increasing  of  those 
who  are  disposed  to  attend  the  public  worship  of  God.  Sabbath- 
breaking  is  becoming  more  and  more  disreputable,  and  is  viewed 
by  increasing  numbers  as  evidence  of  a  low,  reckless,  and  vicious 
mind.  The  conviction  is  extending  that  it  is  not  only  morally 
wrong,  but  unprofitable  and  dangerous.  And  should  all  the  facts 
with  regard  to  this  subject  be  known  and  duly  appreciated,  that 
conviction,  we  believe,  will  become  universal"  (pp.  4,  5).  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  this  movement  was  interrupted,  but  it  has 
not  been  without  much  advantage,  and  has  been  succeeded  by  an 
other,  which,  though  local,  promises,  through  the  energy  of  its 


602  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

chief  promoter,  the  Rev.  R  S.  Cook,  New  York,  to  extend  ovei 
and  bless  the  whole  continent  of  North  America.  We  have  re 
ferred,  in  our  sketch  of  the  Sabbath  Literature  of  the  United  States, 
to  "  some  important  documents"  issued  by  the  Sabbath  Committee 
of  New  York.  From  a  "  Circular  Letter  of  the  Committee  to  the 
Clergy,"  of  date  Nov.  20,  1861,  printed  in  one  of  these  docu 
ments,  we  give  the  following  most  gratifying  vidimus  of  "the 
Sabbath  reform"  in  that  city  :  "  It  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the 
deplorable  and  apparently  hopeless  condition  of  things  here  four 
years  ago.  The  change  already  effected  seems  scarcely  credible  to 
ourselves.  Then,  Sunday  laws  were  as  obsolete  and  inoperative 
in  New  York  as  in  Vienna  :  nobody  attempted  or  expected  their 
enforcement.  Now,  they  are  as  efficiently  executed  as  other  sta 
tutes,  with  the  cordial  approval  of  our  citizens  generally.  Then, 
hundreds  of  news-boys  overran  the  city  every  Sabbath,  disturbing 
the  peace  of  the  whole  population ;  now,  the  nuisance  is  abated, 
and  most  of  our  streets  are  as  quiet  as  those  of  a  country  village. 
Then,  more  than  5000  dramshops  plied  their  deadly  traffic  openly, 
and  without  hindrance ;  now,  their  doors  and  shutters  are  gene 
rally  closed,  and  if  liquors  are  sold,  it  is  by  stealth,  and  at  the 
hazard  of  instant  arrest  for  the  misdemeanour.  Then,  a  score  of 
theatres  made  Sunday  their  chief  day  of  profit  and  pleasure,  with 
no  adequate  law  to  restrain  them  ;  now,  a  stringent  law  is  on  our 
statute-book,  its  constitutionality  affirmed,  and  its  penalties  in 
flicted,  in  spite  of  the  most  powerful  combinations.  Then,  the 
arrests  for  Sunday  crime  exceeded  the  average  by  '25  per  cent. ; 
now,  the  week-day  arrests  are  50  per  cent,  more  than  on  Sunday. 
Then,  the  secular  press  ignored  the  Sunday  question  as  foreign  to 
its  objects ;  since  and  now,  the  entire  press  of  the  city,  uninter 
ested  in  Sunday  issues — with,  perhaps,  a  single  exception — has 
been  and  is  earnestly  enlisted  in  support  of  this  reform.  Then, 
the  entire  German  population  was  claimed  to  be  wedded  to  Sun 
day  pastimes  and  opposed  to  American  Sabbath  restraints ;  now, 
a  large  and  influential  body  of  Germans  are  avowedly  friendly  to 
the  due  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  actively  hostile  to  the 
demoralizing  views  and  customs  of  the  beer-garden  classes.  In  a 
word,  the  more  offensive  forms  of  Sabbath  desecration  have  been 
suppressed,  ifl  the  face  of  the  most  virulent  opposition  of  interested 


PEOGEESS  AND  PROSPECTS.  603 

parties,  by  the  co-operation  of  the  orderly  classes  with  the  public 
authorities.  And  a  permanent  foundation  has  been  laid  for  all 
needed  future  action — legislative,  judicial,  or  executive — for  the 
protection  of  our  civil  Sabbath." 1  In  the  document  from  which 
these  words  are  taken,  there  are  resolutions  of  more  than  100 
clergymen  of  New  York  (1858) — Minutes  of  the  General  Assem 
blies  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  0.  S.  and  N.  S.  (May  1861) — 
Resolution  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church 
(June  1861) — and  resolutions  of  2000  Germans  in  Cooper  Insti 
tute — all  expressive  of  the  strongest  attachment  to  the  sacred  day, 
and  of  determination  to  maintain  and  promote  its  observance. 

It  would  be  truly  lamentable  if  Great  Britain  should,  after  all, 
put  away  from  her  that  Sabbath  which  has  been  her  bulwark, 
blessing,  and  honour — which  foreigners  have  so  greatly  admired 
and  coveted — and  which  she  has  done  so  much  to  revive  in  con 
tinental,  as  well  as  to  plant  in  heathen  nations.  Some  of  her  un 
worthy  sons  no  doubt  have  a  desire  to  witness  this  catastrophe,  as 
incendiaries  have  a  taste  for  the  destruction  of  food,  property,  or 
life.  Too  many,  besides,  are  by  their  neglect  and  violation  of  the 
institution  inconsiderately  working  towards  such  a  result.  And 
opinions,  which  unsettle  the  foundations  of  a  weekly  holy  day  as 
they  exist  in  primseval  appointment,  in  the  Decalogue,  and  in  the 
words  and  example  of  Jesus  Christ,  have  a  tendency  to  the  same 
fatal  issue.  It  is  true,  that  the  Sabbath  does  not  depend  upon 
any  particular  country,  and  that  the  loss  of  it  would  only  be  our 
own  ruin.  But  there  is  "  hope  in  Israel  concerning  this  thing." 
We  are  not  without  "  tokens  for  good."  Many  of  our  working 
men  have  proved  false  to  the  trust,  which  their  fathers,  after 
nobly  contending  for  the  divinely  given  right,  committed  to  their 
hands  ;  but  the  recent  prize  essays,  and  the  numerously  subscribed 
petitions  against  threatened  spoliations  of  the  boon,  have  afforded 
gratifying  evidence,  that  the  profound  regard  for  the  Lord's  day, 
which  was  derived  from  the  religious  instruction  for  so  long  a  time 
the  glory  of  this  country,  still  largely  distinguishes  our  peasantry 
and  artisans.2  Another  cheering  circumstance  is  the  extent  to 

1  Doc.  No.  xx.,  The  Sabbath  and  the  Pulpit,  pp.  2,  3. 

2  There  were  presented  during  the  Session  of  1853,  chiefly  from  working  men,  764 
petitions,  with  165,757  signatures,  against  the  opening  of  the  Crystal  Palace  on  the 
Lord's  day  :  in  favour  of  it,  only  119  petitions,  with  23,081  signatures. 


604  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

which  the  middle  classes  are  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  institu 
tion,  evinced  in  their  exertions  on  its  behalf.1  A  third  encourage 
ment  arises  from  certain  services,  as  the  Forbes  Mackenzie  Act, 
and  the  frequent  negativing  of  proposals  to  open  places  of  public 
amusement  on  the  Lord's  day,  which  have  been  rendered  to  our  cause 
in  Parliament.2  Further,  when  some  years  ago  the  same  newspaper 
recorded  the  coronation  of  the  Emperor  of  Eussia  on  the  Sabbath- 
day,  and  informed  us  that  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  the  French 
were  present  on  a  Sunday  at  a  bull-fight  at  Bayonne,  remaining 
at  it  to  the  end,  we  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  such  things 
could  not  have  been  enacted  in  this  land.3  To  these  symptoms 
of  good,  we  have  to  add  the  manifestations  of  a  reviving  religion, 
the  strong  desires  for  an  extended  and  improved  education  (soon, 
we  trust,  to  be  fulfilled),  so  prevalent  in  our  day,  experiments 
showing  that  Sabbath  labour,  held  for  so  long  a  time  to  be  neces- 

1  For  example  :  All  the  banking  firms  in  London,  with  two  exceptions,  memorialized 
the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  in  1838,  against  the  opening  on  Sunday  of  the  General  Post- 
Office  and  branch  offices  in  London,  for  the  reception  of  letters,  etc.  Besides  memorials 
from  merchants,  solicitors,  and  others  to  the  same  effect,  the  Common  Council  of  Lon 
don  unanimously  adopted  a  resolution  in  harmony  with  the  memorials.  In  Glasgow 
forty-one  of  the  fifty  members  of  the  Town-Council — the  managers  of  nine  of  the  eleven 
banks — twenty-two  physicians  and  surgeons,  including  the  most  eminent— sixty-eight 
procurators,  brokers,  etc. , — and  3S2  merchants  and  manufacturers — Nos.  68  and  382  em 
bracing  "a  very  large  section  of  the  most  affluent  and  influential  portion  of  the  com 
munity,"  declared,  in  a  petition  to  Parliament  against  Sunday  labour  in  the  Post-Office, 
"  that  many  of  your  petitioners  are  engaged  in  mercantile  and  professional  pursuits, 
and  are  quite  prepared  to  dispense  with  all  postal  communications  on  the  Sabbath  : 
and  they  are  fully  persuaded  that  the  adoption  of  this  course  would  be  unattended  with 
any  serious  commercial  disadvantages,  and,  on  the  whole,  greatly  conducive  to  the  in 
terests  of  the  entire  community."  We  have  already  mentioned  the  petition  of  641 
medical  men  of  London  against  the  opening  of  the  Crystal  Palace— and  add  only  one 
other  fact  out  of  many,  which  is,  that  the  petitions  against  opening  public  exhibitions 
on  the  Lord's  day,  during  the  session  of  1856,  was  4996,  with  629,178  signatures  ;  in 
favour  of  the  opening,  123  petitions,  with  24,056  signatures. 

3  A  Bill  which  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons  last  session,  and  which 
passed  a  select  committee,  but  at  too  late  a  period  to  become  law,  has  been  again  intro 
duced  this  Session,  intituled  "  The  Public  Houses  (Scotland)  Amendment  Acts  Bill," 
and  if  passed  into  a  law,  will  eminently  serve  the  interests  of  the  Sabbath,  and  of 
morality. 

3  On  Saturday  the  Queen  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  the  mausoleum  at  Frogmore,  in 
which  are  to  be  deposited  the  remains  of  her  dearly-loved  husband  the  Prince  Consort, 
and  ultimately  her  own.  Her  Majesty  had  "wished  that  this  mournful  ceremony  should 
take  place  upon  the  first  anniversary  of  the  death  of  her  revered  mother  the  Duchess  of 
Kent,  but,  as  that  day  was  Sunday,  the  eve  of  the  anniversary  was  selected. — British 
Ensign,  March  19,  1862. 


CONCLUDING  APPEAL.  605 

sary  in  certain  callings,  may  be  safely  and  even  beneficially  dis 
pensed  with1 — and  the  continually  increasing  exertions  of  churches, 
and  other  societies  for  evangelizing  the  masses  at  home,  and  con 
verting  the  heathen  abroad.2 

But  our  confidence  as  to  the  ultimate  universality  and  triumph 
of  the  Sabbath  is  not  reposed  on  men,  however  great  or  good. 
Nor  does  it  rest  on  past  success,  or  present  promising  appearances, 
however  encouraging  these  may  be.  Hope  has  no  sure  ground  of 
anchorage,  in  the  changing,  dying  men,  or  in  the  shifting  scenes, 
of  this  earth.  It  must  "  enter  into  that  within  the  veil."  The 
Word  and  Power  of  the  invisible,  the  unchangeable,  and  eternal 
God  of  the  Sabbath,  are  our  all-sufficient  security  that  the  insti 
tution  is  to  be  universal  in  the  world,  and  to  endure  for  ever. 
"  From  one  Sabbath  to  another  shall  all  flesh  come  to  worship 
before  me,  saith  the  Lord."  "There  remaineth" — even  to  all 
eternity — "  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God."  "  God  is  not  a  man, 
that  he  should  lie  ;  neither  the  son  of  man,  that  he  should  re 
pent  :  hath  he  said,  and  shall  he  not  do  it  :  or  hath  he  spoken, 
and  shall  he  not  make  it  good  1 " 

In  bringing  this  extended  discussion  to  a  close,  we  wish  briefly 
to  urge  upon  our  readers  two  considerations,  which  ought  to  dis 
pose  all  to  increased  respect  and  gratitude  for  so  benignant  an  in 
stitution  as  the  Sabbath,  and  to  lead  those  who  have  not  already 
done  so,  earnestly  to  ponder  its  claims. 

Mrst,  The  present  interests  of  all  classes  are  deeply  involved  in 
their  views  of  the  Sabbatic  institution.  As  to  working  men,  it  is 
eminently  their  charter — the  security  for  their  all — for  their  time, 
their  health,  their  respectability,  their  defence  against  the  exaction 

1  As  in  iron-works  (pp.  210,  211)— in  gas-works  and  cheese-making  (Baylee's  Hist,  of 
the  Sab.  p.  274) — and  in  baking,  as  appear  from  trials  made  by  master-bakers  in  Edin 
burgh  (see  report  in  the  newspapers  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Sabbath  Alliance,  who  has 
interested  himself  much  in  this  matter). 

2  We  give  a  second  specimen  of  the  results  of  such  exertions  in  connexion  with  one 
benevolent  institution— the  London  City  Mission  :  "  Communicants,  1535 — Backsliders 
restored  to  church  communion,  307— Families  induced  to  commence  family  prayer, 
681 — Drunkards  reclaimed,  1230— Unmarried  couples  induced  to  marry,  361 — Fallen 
females  rescued,  681— Shops  closed  on  the  Lord's  day,  212— Children  sent  to  schools, 
10,158."    Taken  from  Summary  for  1860-61,  circulated  by  Rev.  F.  Tyrell,  one  of  th« 
secretaries. 


606  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

of  undue  toil,  the  improvement  of  their  minds  and  morals,  and, 
above  all,  their  means  of  eternal  salvation.  Its  importance  is 
enhanced  by  the  numerical  greatness  of  their  class,  who  form  an 
immense  majority,  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  population  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  According  to  their  character  and  circumstances 
must  their  own  millions  comprise  a  vast  amount  of  suffering  or 
enjoyment,  and  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  be  virtuous  and  com 
fortable,  or  the  reverse,  without  affecting  for  good  or  evil  the  entire 
nation.  The  condition  of  the  labouring  portion  of  society  has  of 
late  years  largely  and  properly  engaged  the  thoughts  of  statesmen 
and  philanthropists.  Among  the  elements  of  social  good,  and  the 
remedies  for  prevalent  evil,  the  value  of  a  day  of  sacred  rest  has 
not  been  overlooked.  Its  friends  have  not  neglected  to  remind 
their  countrymen  of  its  beneficial  influence  on  the  conduct  and 
prosperity  of  those  who  honour  its  claims,  and  enjoy  its  privileges  ; 
and  of  the  injury  that  ever  results  from  a  compulsory  deprivation, 
or  a  voluntary  rejection  of  its  advantages.  The  highest  praise  is 
due  to  those  who  have  exerted  themselves  to  diffuse  information 
regarding  the  institution,  with  the  view  of  securing  its  apprecia 
tion  by  the  great  body  of  the  people  themselves,  and  of  imparting 
both  the  power  and  the  inclination  to  apply  it  to  its  holy  and  bene 
volent  ends.  And  there  is  good  reason  -to  believe  that  rever 
ence  for  the  Lord's  day  has  thereby  not  only  been  increased,  but 
extended  to  not  a  few  "who  had  declined  from  the  piety  of  their 
fathers. 

But  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
community  are  also  deeply  involved  in  the  subject  before  us. 
Although  less  numerous,  they  are  certainly  in  some  respects  the 
more  influential  members  of  society.  The  middle  classes  imitate 
their  superiors  in  dress,  manners,  and  conduct,  and  are  in  their 
turn  followed  by  multitudes  who  have  many  opportunities  of  hear 
ing  their  language,  knowing  their  opinions,  and  observing  their 
behaviour.  Infidelity  in  France,  prior  to  the  first  Revolution, 
began  with  the  higher  grades  in  the  Ste.te  ;  and  our  country  has 
been  found  to  be  licentious  or  moral  as  the  Court  and  nobility 
have  been  profligate,  or  the  reverse.  It  would  not  be  easy  to 
calculate  the  amount  of  moral  injury  inflicted  on  a  rural  district 
by  a  resident  proprietor  of  profane  and  gambling  propensities,  or 


CONCLUDING  APPEAL.  607 

on  the  provincial  town  by  its  free-living  men  of  wealth.  How- 
beneficial  to  the  morals  of  a  land  if  our  merchants  were  Thorn 
tons  in  their  spirit ;  if  our  squires  had  the  piety  and  philanthropy 
of  a  "Wllberforce  ;  if  our  noblemen  were  as  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  benevolence  as  a  Shaftesbury  !  It  is  a  happy  sign  of  the  times 
that  among  all  these  ranks  there  are  so  many  counterparts  of 
such  men.  And  it  is  our  singular  privilege  to  see  the  personal 
and  relative  virtues,  as  well  as  the  proprieties  of  life,  daily  exempli 
fied  in  the  most  elevated  station  by  our  Queen  and  her  princely 
Consort.1  Well  were  it  for  many  if  the  maxim  held  good  : — 

"  Componitur  orbis 

Kegis  ad  exemplum  ;  nee  sic  inflectere  sensus 
Humanos  edicta  valeut,  ut  vita  regentis." 

CLAUDIAN. 

No  classes  are  more  concerned  in  the  stability  and  observance 
of  religious  institutions  than  the  middle  and  upper  ranks  of  a 
nation.  In  all  countries  every  man  should  have  free  scope,  for 
obtaining  wealth  by  honest  industry,  and  for  reaching  distinction 
by  the  force  of  intellect,  and  by  the  cultivation  of  moral  excel 
lence.  It  is  in  proportion  as  religion  prevails  in  any  land,  that 
such  facilities  exist.  And  when  riches  and  honours  are  gained, 
religion  is  the  security  for  the  conservation  of  all  just  possessions. 
The  Sabbath  is  itself  the  means  of  upholding  truth  and  piety,  is 
a  pillar  of  the  throne,  and  a  protection  of  property  and  honour 
able  distinction  against  the  tide  of  revolution.  If  the  fear  of 
God  be  rooted  out,  where  is  the  guarantee  that  the  king  shall  be 
honoured,  the  noble  and  the  rich  respected,  or  the  laws  obeyed  ? 
Indispensable  to  the  children  of  toil,  the  Sabbath  is  scarcely  less 
important  to  the  other  orders  of  a  State.  It  concerns  their 
safety  amidst  materials  of  combustion,  which  it  would  require 
only  a  little  more  infidelity  and  irreligion  amongst  themselves, 
and  amongst  their  neighbours,  to  kindle  into  a  conflagration  de- 

1  Since  these  words  were  first  printed,  death  has  been  commissioned  to  bereave 
our  Q  icen  of  her  beloved'  husband,  and  the  nation  of  one  of  its  chief  ornaments  and 
benefactors  ;  but  that  Prince  Albert  contributed  by  his  position  and  virtues  to  "  our 
singular  privilege,"  is  a  tact  which  remains  unchanged  in  itself,  and  is  too  important 
and  interesting  to  be  cancelled  or  altered  in  one  of  its  humblest  memorials. 


608  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

structive  of  all  the  securities  for  station  and  property  that  are 
maintained,  under  Providence,  by  a  well-observed  Sabbath. 

But,  Second,  the  subject  concerns  still  higher  and  more  enduring 
interests.  In  the  world  that  is  unseen  and  eternal  there  are  only 
two  conditions  of  human  beings,  as  the  results,  thus  foretold,  of 
the  Grand  Assize  :  "  These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  pun 
ishment,  but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal.'5  With  these  des 
tinies  of  men  the  Sabbath  has  momentous  connexions.  It  is  ona 
of  the  laws  of  God,  for  the  transgression  of  which  men  deserva 
the  former  lot,  and  by  perfect  obedience  to  which  Jesus  delivered 
his  followers  from  the  wrath  to  come  :  "  The  wages  of  sin  is 
death,  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,"  "  in  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood, 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to  the  riches  of  his  grace." 
The  Sabbath  is  one  of  those  laws  of  God,  the  affectionate  keep 
ing  of  which  is  necessary  to  prove  our  saving  relation  to  Christ, 
and  our  title  to  heaven  :  "  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  com 
mandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and 
may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city."  "  Not  every  one 
that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven."  When  some  of  the  Pharisees  said,  "  This  man  is  not 
of  God,  because  he  keepeth  not  the  Sabbath-day,"1  they  were 
right  in  so  far  as  the  principle  was  concerned,  but  utterly  wrong 
in  ics  application.  Of  those  who  by  "  scorn  of  God's  commands" 
show  that  they  are  unblessed  with  spiritual  life,  Cowper  has 
terrnly  but  truly  said — 

"  That  want  uncured  till  man  resigns  his  breath, 
Speaks  him  a  criminal  assured  of  everlasting  death. 
Sad  period  to  a  pleasant  course  !     Yet  so  will  God  repay 
Sabbaths  profaned  without  remorse,  and  mercy  cast  away."  * 

On  the  other  hand,  how  happy  the  condition  of  the  man  who, 
under  "  the  conviction  that  he  stood  almost  on  the  verge  of  eternity, 
and  that  the  days  could  not  be  many  before  the  secret  and  awful 
things  of  futurity  should  be  unveiled  to  him/'  invoked  the  spirit 
of  God  to  enable  him  to  cherish,  with  other  habits,  that  of  "  de 
dicating  the  Sabbath  to  its  proper  duties — not  wasting  its  precious 

i  John  ix.  16.  2  Poems— Nichol's  edit.  vol.  ii.  p.  124. 


CONCLUDING  APfEAl*  609 

hours,  not  worshipping  God  with  a  wandering  and  unsteady  mind, 
not  stealing  its  moments  for  secular  purposes,"  and  that,  of  "  call 
ing  himself  to  account  for  the  use  of  his  money,  of  his  time,  of 
his  powers."1  The  Sabbath,  moreover,  is  a  law  the  love  of  which, 
besides  attesting  the  title  to  heavenly  glory  and  blessedness,  proves 
that  a  character  congenial  to  the  employments,  society,  and  joys 
of  the  world  above  has  begun  to  be  formed,  or  rather  is  far  ad 
vanced — the  character  equally  as  the  title  being  among  those 
"  gifts  and  callings  of  God  which  are  without  repentance."  The 
person  who  has  pleasure  in  a  weekly  day  of  holy  rest  and  service 
will  not  feel  himself  out  of  his  element  when  he  sits  down  with 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  how 
could  he  who  dislikes  the  Sabbath,  spend  eternity  in  beholding, 
loving,  and  lauding  the  Creator  and  Redeemer  of  men  1  "  For 
what  fellowship  hath  righteousness  with  unrighteousness  1  What 
communion  hath  light  with  darkness  1  And  what  concord  hath 
Christ  with  Belial  ?  or  what  part  hath  he  that  believeth  with  an 
infidel  1 "  The  Sabbath,  in  short,  has  been  given  as  a  necessary 
means  of  directing  us  "in  the  way  of  life  which  is  above  to  the 
wise,  that  he  may  depart  from  hell  beneath."2  It  brings  leisure 
to  immortal  beings,  too  engrossed  with  the  perishing  objects  of  the 
earth,  to  attend  to  the  claims  of  the  soul  and  of  the  future.  It  gives 
us  a  periodical  pause  in  the  race  of  life  that  we  may  "  wear  off 
by  meditation  the  worldly  soil  contracted  during  the  week."  3  It 
is  "the  combs,  and  hive,  and  home  of  rest."  It  is  heaven  let 
down  from  week  to  week,  that  we  may  dwell  in  its  light,  breathe 
its  air,  and  learn  its  music.  And  only  as  we  redeem  the  precious 
fleeting  season  are  we  becoming  qualified 

"to rest  eternally 
With  him  that  is  the  God  of  Sabbath  hight." 

But  if  we  would  intelligently  and  sincerely  join  the  poet  in  his 
following  fervent  aspiration, — 

"  0  that  great  Sabbath  !  God  grant  me  that  Sabbath's  sight, — 
and  if  we  would  "  rest  eternally"  in  the  favour,  in  the  perfections, 
to  <he  service,  arid  holy  happinest  of  God,  a  change  in  our  re- 

1  Memoirs  of  Sir  T.  F.  Buxton,  5th  edit.,^p.  306,  307. 

2  Prov.  xv.  24  3  Dr.  Johnson. 

2Q 


610  THE  SABBATH  ENFORCED. 

lation  and  feelings  to  Him  must  be  effected.  And  it  must  lw 
effected  in  the  present  state.  It  cannot  take  place  in  a  future 
•world,  for  in  that  world  there  is  an  impassable  gulph  between 
the  two  classes  of  men,  and,  while  "  the  holy"  remain  holy, 
<:  the  filthy"  must  be  "  filthy  still."  Nor  would  it  be  reason 
able  to  indulge  the  hope  that  it  will  be  realized  in  the  article, 
or  immediate  prospect,  of  death.  The  thief  on  the  cross  obtained 
mercy  as  he  was  about  to  die.  But  how  foolish  to  regulate  our 
procedure  by  the  only  authenticated  case  of  so  late  a  repentance, 
— the  one  exception  ;  and  to  forget  the  all  but  universal  rule  1 
Because  one  man  has  thrown  himself  over  a  precipice,  and  been 
mercifully  preserved,  would  it  be  wise  in  us  to  try  the  same 
experiment  ?  While  every  period,  then,  even  of  this  life,  is  not 
favourable  for  beginning  the  preparation  for  heaven,  it  is  only  in 
this  life  that  it  can  be  commenced.  The  Scriptures  represent  this 
world  as  the  only  training-place  for  eternity.  It  is  the  lower  form 
in  the  school  of  knowledge,  where  the  rudiments  of  celestial  wis 
dom  must  be  learned.  There  is  no  provision  in  a  future  state  for 
instructing  tyros.  There  is  beyond  death  "  no  more  sacrifice  for 
sins,"  and  no  gospel  to  be  "the  power  of  God  unto  salvation." 
Let  us,  therefore,  now  hear,  that  our  souls  may  live,  the  joyful 
sound  as  it  cornea  from  the  lips  of  the  Divine  and  compassionate 
Saviour  :  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of 
me  ;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  buiden  is  light." 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


ABBOT,  George,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
forbade  King  James  vi.'s  Declaration  for 
Sports  on  the  Lord's  day  to  be  read  in  the 
church  at  Croydon,  87. 

Abbot,  George,  member  of  the  Long  Parlia 
ment,  his  Work  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath, 
138,  145. 

Acronius,  Ruardus,  his  sentiments  on  the 
Sabbath,  93. 

Addison,  Joseph,  his  testimony  to  the  authority 
and  value  of  the  Sabbath,  432,  473. 

Adelaide,  Queen,  589. 

Agnew,  Sir  Andrew,  his  exertions  against 
Sabbath  desecration,  148,  437,  588. 

Agnew,  Professor,  of  America,  154. 

Agricola,  John,  Islebius,  founder  of  the  An- 
tinomians  in  Germany,  ground  on  which  he 
incorrectly  charged  Luther  with  affirming 
the  abrogation  of  the  Decalogue,  35,  466. 

Agrippa,  6. 

Ahasuerus,  Jews  under,  successfully  defend 
their  religion,  5. 

Albert,  Prince,  167,  604,  607. 

Albro,  Dr.  John  A.,  American  biographer  of 
Thomas  Shepard,  151. 

Alcuin,  391,  396. 

Alden,  Dr.  Ebenezer,  of  Massachusetts,  180. 

Alexander  in.  of  Scotland,  399. 

Alexander  of  Hales,  382,  386. 

Alexander,  Emperor  of  Russia,  551. 

Alexandria,  The  church  of,  did  not  observe 
the  seventh  and  first  days  of  the  week,  as 
was  done  by  many  of  the  early  Christians, 
11. 

Alfred  the  Great,  386,  396,  401,  403. 

Allein,  Rev.  William,  wrote  on  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Sabbath,  146. 

Alphonsus,  Petrus,  386. 

Alting,  James,  held  that  the  primitive  Sabbath 
was  posterior  to  the  fall  of  man,  144. 

Ambrose,  369,  391,  402. 

America,  Pilgrim  Fathers  of,  23 ;  their  care 
for  the  due  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  90, 
91,  150,  191,  504  ;  favourable  testimony  to, 
by  the  magistrates  of  Leyden,  504.  See 
Holland,  and  New  England. 

America,  United  States  of,  Sabbatic  Contro 
versies  in,  149-157 ;  influence  of  the  Sabbath 
in,  on  literature  and  general  intelligence, 
191  ;  on  domestic  virtue  and  happiness,  234, 
235,  241  ;  on  the  spirit  of  useful  enterprise, 
244,  253  ;  and  on  national  prosperity,  210, 
214,  215,  219,  245,  250,  263,  451, 552  ;  success 
ful  attempts  for  the  reformation  of  Sabbatic 
abuses  in,  584,  601-603 ;  Unitarianism  in,  264, 
26£. 

American  and  Foreign  Sabbath  Union,  154. 


Ames,  Dr.  William,  wrote  on  the  question  of 
the  ceremonies,  24-26  ;  his  encomium  on 
William  Teellinck,  91  ;  his  Medulla  Thcolo- 
gica,  97 ;  notice  of,  98 ;  his  work  on  the 
Sabbath,  107. 

Amner,  Richard,  147. 

Amsterdam,  Sabbath  in,  598. 

Amusement,  Proposed  expedient  of  converting 
the  Sabbath  into  a  day  of,  495-499,  512. 

Anderson,  Major-General,  472. 

Andrewes,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  held  the  per 
manent  obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  77,  84,  88, 
118,  138. 

Aneiteurn,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  New  Heb 
rides,  236. 

Anselm,  386. 

Anthemius,  Emperor,  401. 

Antiochus  Epiplianes,  3. 

Apocrypha,  6. 

Appian,  his  hostility  to  the  Jewish  religion  and 
Sabbath,  3. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  386,  389. 

Arkwright,  Sir  Richard,  211. 

Armenian  churches,  Disregard  of  the  Sabbath 
by,  564. 

Arnoklus,  Nicolaus,  Professor  in  the  University 
of  Franeker,  116. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  Obligation  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment  on  Christians  denied  by, 
142,  143. 

Arthur,  Rev.  William,  author  of  The  People's 
Day,  149. 

Articles,  Thirty-nine,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
subscription  to,  required,  66  ;  doctrine  of, 
as  to  the  Sabbath,  118,  421,  425,  428. 

Asceticism,  Pagan  origin  of,  223. 

Aspinwall,  his  work  in  refutation  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  144. 

Assembly,  General,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
sympathy  of,  with  the  suffering  English  Puri 
tans,  23  ;  nullity  of  Assembly  of  1618,  26 ; 
Assembly  of  1596,  152,  159;  Assembly  of 
1638,  159 ;  Assembly  of  1647  adopt  the  West 
minster  Confession  of  Faith,  ib.  ;  Directory 
for  Family  Worship  added  to  the  Confession. 
439;  numerous  Acts  of  Assembly  on  tha 
Sabbath,  442. 

Atcheson,  A.  S.,  his  reply  to  Beausobre,  o\ 
the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath,  148. 

Athanasius,  writes  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
against  the  Jews,  8,  383,  387,  398,  402. 

Atonement,  Doctrine  of,  taught  in  Dr.  Adam 
Smith's  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  198. 

Avgsburg,  Confession  of;  its  doctrine  as  to  holi 
days,  14,  15,  459 ;  and  as  to  the  Sabbath,  406, 
416,  463. 

Augustus,  Roman  Emperor,  his  order  that  the 
Jews  should  not  be  obliged  to  appear  befor* 
any  judge  on  the  Sabbath-day,  6,  181. 


612 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Augustine,  3  ;  writes  in  defence  of  the  Lord's 
day  against  the  Jews,  8;  defends  holidays, 
15,  369,  370,  382,  385,  3SS,  389,  391,  402;  his 
error  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  467. 

Aylmer,  Bishop  of  London,  52  ;  from  being  an 
ardent  Reformer  becomes  a  Conformist,  53  ; 
usually  played  at  bowls  on  the  Sabbath 
afternoon,  ib.  ;  his  severe  treatment  of  the 
Puritan  ministers,  54,  57,  58,  61. 

Aytoun,  James,  writes  against  the  Sabbath, 
*167 


BABHSGTON,  Gervase,  Bishop  of  "Worcester, 
defends  in  his  writings  the  divine  authority 
of  the  Sabbath,  58,  59,  64,  69,  70,  77,  118. 

Babylonians,  their  hostility  to  the  Jewish  Sab 
bath,  2,  3,  360. 

Bacon,  Lord,  Eulogiumpronouncedupon  Arch 
bishop  Grindal  by,  55 ;  his  interposition  in 
behalf  of  John  Traske,  88  ;  held  the  perma 
nent  obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  118, 153, 193, 
2*2,  430,  475. 

Badham,  Dr.  Charles,  his  remarks  on  Juvenal's 
misinterpretation  of  the  Jewish  religion,  5. 

Bagnall,  Mr.,  211. 

Bagshaw,  William,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  145. 

Baillie,  Robert,  Principal  of  the  University  of 
Glasgow,  27,  163. 

Bakers,  207,  215. 

Ball,  Richard,  his  publication  on  the  Sabbath. 
148. 

Bampfield,  Francis,  wrote  in  defence  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142,  144,  531. 

Bannerman,  Obligation  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment  on  Christians  denied  by,  142, 143, 
148. 

Barclay,  John,  the  Berean,  165. 

Barclay,  Robert,  the  Quaker,  his  sentiments 
on  the  Sabbath,  164,  415. 

Barlow,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  24. 

Barnabas,  368,  369,  377. 

Barnes,  Dr.  Albert,  154. 

Barrow,  Dr.  Isaac,  regarded  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment  as  a  Jewish  and  temporary  ordi 
nance,  196,  142,  143. 

Barter,  William  Brudenell,  his  reply  to  Arch 
bishop  Whately  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Sab 
bath,  148,  577,  578. 

Barvvick,  Dr.  John,  his  statement  of  Bishop 
Morton's  account  of  the  origin  of  James 
vi. 's  Declaration  for  Sports  on  the  Lord's 
day,  83,  84. 

Basil,  commonly  called  St.,  writes  in  defence 
of  the  Lord's  day  against  the  Jews,  8 ;  en 
courages  the  observance  of  holidays,  15,  388. 

Basle,  Sabbath  in,  598. 

Bastwick,  Dr.  John,  savage  treatment  of,  125. 

Battely,  his  Original  Institution  of  the  Sabbath, 
146. 

Bates,  Dr.  William,  140;  224. 

Baxter,  Richard,  wrote  on  the  question  of  the 
ceremonies,  24 ;  his  sentiments  on  Noncon 
formity  influenced  by  a  work  of  Dr.  Ames's, 
25,  26;  and  by  Calderwood's  Altare  Damas- 
cenum,  27,  28  ;  Sabbath  profanation  at  the 
Court  of  Charles  i.  comes  under  his  personal 


observation,  130;  his  Divine  Appointment 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  144,  145,  163.  224,  476,  584. 

Baylee,  John  T.,  his  labours  on  the  history 
and  statistics  of  the  Sabbath,  149,  605. 

Bayly,  Lewis,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  44  ;  held  the 
sentiments  of  the  Puritans  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
118  ;  his  Practice  of  Piety,  118,  119. 

Bear  and  bull-baiting,  a  Sabbath  amusement, 
48,  49,  51 ;  put  down  by  James  vi. ,  51,  82,  85. 

Beausobre,  Mons.  ;  reply  of  Atcheson  to  his 
doctrine  on  the  Sabbath,  148. 

Bede,  382,  385. 

Bel,  or  Baal  (Beltein),  The  anniversary  of, 
lately  lingered  in  some  parts  of  Scotland, 
361. 

Belfast,  250. 

Belgium,  237,  256. 

Belgic  churches,  The,  prevented  by  the 
magistrates  from  abolishing  holidays,  19, 
414.  See  Netherlands. 

Belsham,  Rev.  Thos.,  held  the  opinion  that 
every  day  is  alike,  142. 

Beneficence,  Disposition  to  exercise,  fostered 
by  the  Sabbath,  219,  220  ;  works  of,  a  part 
of  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath,  331,  332. 

Benevolence  of  God,  The  Sabbath  the  sugges 
tion  of,  268. 

Benevolent  institutions  have  only  existed  in 
lands  where  the  Sabbath  has  been  known, 
268. 

Benn,  William,  of  Dorchester,  his  treatise  iu 
vindication  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  144. 

Berlin,  Desecration  of  the  Sabbath  in,  566,  567. 

Bernard,  commonly  called  St.,  386  ;  held  that 
holidays  were  equally  sacred  as  the  Sab 
bath,.  458. 

Bernard,  Dr.  Nicholas,  140. 

Bernard,  Richard,  Rector  of  Batcombe.  hia 
work  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath,  138. 

Berne,  Holidays  observed  in,  18. 

Beveridge,  Bishop,  wrote  against  the  dese 
cration  of  the  Sabbath,  146. 

Beza,  Theodore,  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Geneva,  his  sentiments  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
412,  417,  418. 

Bianconi,  Mr. ,  of  Clonmel  in  Ireland,  his  testi 
mony  to  the  physical  necessity  of  the  rest 
of  the  Sabbath  to  horses,  183. 

Bible,  The,  Number  of  editions  of,  published 
during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  55 ;  pro 
motes  intellectual  improvement,  188  ;  the 
reading  of,  originated  the  Reformation, 
582,  583.  See  Word  of  God. 

Bickersteth,  Edward,  205,  225,  283,  476. 

Bid-ales,  a  Sunday's  feast,  object  of,  126,  127. 

Billingsley,  Nicholas,  his  publication  on  the 
Sabbath,  145. 

Bingham,  his  Antiquities  quoted,  11,  384 ; 
his  sound  views  on  the  Sabbath,  146,  384. 

Black,  Mr.  David,  minister  of  St.  Andrews, 
216. 

Blackstone,  his  testimony  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  194,  251,  473,  503. 

Blair,  Lord  President,  438. 

Blomfield,  Bishop,  Letter  of,  to  inhabitants 
of  London  on  the  Sabbath,  147. 

Bohemian  Brethren,  386,  387;  their  strict 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  404. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


613 


jUton,  Robert,  Dean  of  Carlisle,  wrote  against 
Babbath  desecration,  147. 

Jjonner,  Edmund,  Archdeacon,  afterwards 
Bishop,  his  sentiments  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
37  ;  unsuccessfully  endeavours  to  exclude 
common  plays  fi.o:n  churches,  49. 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  is  confirmed  by 
Parliament  in  1551,  39;  the  command 
ments  then  for  the  first  time  added  to  the 
Liturgy,  39,  40,  55  ;  two  Puritan  ministers 
executed  in  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  for 
circulating  a  work  against,  67 ;  subscrip 
tion  to,  required,  66. 

Boston,  Thomas,  66,  161. 

Bouchier,  Rev.  Barton,  his  replj  to  H.  May- 
hew  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath,  148. 

Bownd,  Nicholas,  13.  D.,  minister  of  Norton 
in  Suffolk,  his  account  of  the  profanation 
of  the  Sabbath  in  England  in  1606,  45; 
publication  of  his  important  "Work  on  the 
Sabbath,  66 ;  a  summary  of  the  views 
maintained  in  it,  67,  68 ;  second  edition, 
69 ;  its  great  influence  in  promoting  more 
correct  ideas  and  a  better  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  69,  70,  79-81 ;  followed  by  writ 
ings  and  disputations  in  support  of  its 
opinions,  70,  71 ;  his  treatise  said  to  have 
been  called  in,  53  ;  this  statement  ques 
tioned,  53,  74,  75,  79,  80  (see  Rogers, 
Thomas) ;  misinterpretations  of,  by  Fuller, 
corrected,  81. 

Brabourae,  Theophilus,  a  minister  in  Nor 
folk,  his  Discourse,  in  which  he  defends 
the  seventh  day  of  the  week  as  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath,  122  ;  his  larger  work  on  the 
same  subject,  125  ;  his  recantation  before 
the  High  Commission,  125,  126,  132,  142. 

Brain  erd,  David,  330,  476. 

Bramhall,  John,  Bishop,  afterwards  Arch 
bishop,  regarded  the  Fourth  Command 
ment  as  a  Jewish  and  temporary  ordinance, 
136,  142,  143. 

Brerewood,  Edward,  Professor  of  Astronomy 
in  Gresham  College,  his  controversy  on  the 
Sabbath  with  Nicholas  Byfield,  122,  123 ; 
his  work  on  the  Sabbath  answered  by 
Richard  Byfield,  124. 

Brewer,  Rev.  J.  S.,  editor  of  Fuller's 
Church  History,  corrects  some  misrepre 
sentations  as  to  Bownd  in  that  history,  81. 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  473. 

Bridges,  James,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  167. 

Britain,  Great,  influence  of  the  Sabbath  on  its 
literature  and  general  intelligence,  191 ;  on 
its  wealth  and  enterprise,  214,  219 ;  on  its 
domestic  virtues  and  happiness,  234,  235, 241, 
244 ;  on  its  good  government,  249,  25f ,  253, 
258  ;  and  on  its  greatness,  552,  553  ;  number 
•who  have  abandoned  church-going  in,  233  ; 
favourable  prospects  as  to  the  Sabbath  in, 
603-605.  See  England. 

Broad,  Thomas,  Rector  of  Retcomb,  109  ;  his 
Three  Questions  on  the  Fourth  Commandment, 
119,  120 ;  his  Latin  treatise  against  the 
Sabbath,  121. 

Brooke,  Rev.  Thomas,  his  reply  to  Burnside 
and  Bannennan  on  ttie  Sabbath.  148. 


Brooks,  J.  T.,  M.D.,  182. 

Brown,  Mr.  John,  minister  of  Wamphray, 
notice  of,  115 ;  his  Work  on  the  Sabbath 
the  largest  ever  published,  ib. ;  its  value, 
116;  his  complaint  of  the  prevailing  pro 
fanation  of  the  Sabbath  in  Holland,  116. 

Brown,  Mr.  John,  minister  of  Haddington, 
161,  165. 

Brown,  Rev.  J.  Newton,  of  America,  155. 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  of  Edinburgh,  473. 

Brown,  Moses,  Verse  made  tributary  to  tb* 
cause  of  the  Sabbath  by,  147. 

Brownistic  opinions,  100. 

Bruce,  Archibald,  Professor,  his  Annus  Sectt- 
laris,  16,  17  ;  object  of  that  Work,  28. 

Bruce,  Rev.  John,  Edinburgh,  his  publica 
tion  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Bucer,  Martin,  opposed  to  holidays,  17  ;  vindi 
cates  the  claims  of  the  Sabbath,  408,  409, 
417. 

Bullinger,  Henry,  19,  61 ;  his  sentiments  as  to 
the  Sabbath,  409,  412,  417. 

Bunsen,  Chevalier,  249,  251. 

Bunyan,  John,  his  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
published,  144,  584. 

Burder,  Dr.  Henry  Forster,  his  Work  on  the 
Sabbath,  147. 

Burghley,  Lord  (William  Cecil),  condemns 
Whitgift's  severe  treatment  of  the  Puritan 
ministers,  54  ;  his  eminence  as  a  statesman, 
55,  57,  58. 

Burke,  Edmund,  153,  217,  25]  ;  his  testimony 
to  the  authority  and  value  of  the  Sabbath, 
432,  433,  474,  475. 

Burman  feasts,  held  at  the  full  and  change  of 
the  moon,  360,  362. 

Burmann,  Francis,  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Utrecht,  maintained  that  the  Sabbath  waa 
merely  a  custom  and  ordinance  of  the  Church, 
111,112 ;  controversy  between  him  and  Essen 
on  the  subject,  112-116. 

Burnet,  Gilbert,  Bishop,  159-161  ;  his  sermon 
on  the  Sabbath,  164,  169,  473,  505. 

Burns,  Rev.  William,  of  Kilsyth,  166. 

Burnside,  Robert,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142,  148. 

Burs,  Mr.  Giles,  one  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  Middleburg,  95,  101. 

Burs,  James,  son  of  the  preceding,  author  of 
the  first  book  published  in  the  Netherlands 
against  the  Sabbath,  95,  96  ;  this  book 
answered  by  Voetius,  96,  98 ;  and  replied  to 
by  Teellinck,  99,  100. 

Burton,  Mr.  Henry,  Rector  of  St.  Matthew's, 
Friday  Street,  London,  contended  for  the 

'  divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath,  124,  125 ; 
savage  treatment  of,  125,  135. 

Burton,  William,  publishes  an  abstract  of 
Bownd's  work  on  the  Sabbath,  70. 

Buxton,  Sir  Thomas  Fowell,  219,  476,  608,  609. 

Byfield,  Nicholas,  minister  of  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Chester,  his  controversy  with  Ed 
ward  Brerewood  as  to  the  Sabbath,  122, 123 ; 
notice  of,  123,  124. 

Byfield,  Richard,  minister  of  Long  Ditton  in 
Surrey,  his  reply  to  Brerewood's  work  on 
the  Sabbath,  124. 

Byron.  Lord,  927,  231.  2S3 


614 


GENERAL  INDEX, 


CAB-DRIVERS,  207,  230. 

Csesarius,  Bishop  of  Aries,  389. 

Calabar,  Old,  People  of,  360,  361. 

Calderwood,  David,  wrote  on  the  question  of 
the  ceremonies,  24  ;  and  in  opposition  to  the 
five  articles  of  Perth,  26;  his  Altare  Dama- 
scenum  pronounced  by  James  vi.  to  be 
unanswerable,  27,  162,  169,  216. 

California,  Rest  of  the  Sabbath  found  neces 
sary  at  gold  diggings  of,  182. 

Calvin,  John,  not  absolutely  against  holidays, 
17,  18,  414  ;  letter  from  Bullinger  to,  19,  33  ; 
held  the  doctrine  of  a  primaeval  Sabbath, 
383,  405,  406,  412 ;  regarded  the  Sabbath  as 
reasonable,  useful,  and  indispensable,  407  ; 
enforced  and  practised  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day,  408-411 ;  slanderously  accused 
of  wishing  to  abolish  the  Sabbath,  414,  415 ; 
his  sentiments  as  to  the  change  of  the  day, 
417 ;  held  the  Lord's  day  as  coming  under 
the  authoritative  direction  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  418,  419,  445 ;  vindication 
of,  from  alleged  hostility  to  the  Sabbath, 
458-460 ;  his  language  as  to  the  Sabbath  has 
been  misunderstood,  460-462  ;  erred  to  some 
extent  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  467,  463  ; 
and  in  regard  to  holidays,  ib. 

Calvinists,  93. 

Cambray,  Cardinal  of,  his  opposition  to  holi 
days,  16,  17. 

Cambridge,  University  of,  36,  58,  62,  65,  66,  71, 
95,  98,  118,  163. 

Cameron,  Rev.  C.  R.,  his  reply  to  Archbishop 
Whately  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Sabbath, 
148. 

Canada,  Lower,  245  ;  disregard  of  the  Sabbath 
in,  565. 

Candlish,  Dr.  Robert,  168. 

Carey,  Dr.  William,  476,  583. 

Carlow,  George,  held  the  perpetual  obligation 
of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 

Carpenter,  Dr.  W.  B.,  his  testimony  to  the 
necessity  of  the  Sabbath  to  man's  physi 
cal  wellbeing,  174-176,  179,  472. 

Carson,  R.  H.,  Perth,  his  publication  in  de 
fence  of  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  his  sentiments  on  the 
Sabbath,  43,  118. 

Catcott,  Rev.  A.  S.,  defends  the  antiquity  of 
the  Sabbath,  147. 

Catworth,  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  fifteenth 
century,  397. 

Cauchy,  Baron  Augustin,  his  testimony  to  the 
necessity  of  the  Sabbath,  231. 

Cawdrey,  Daniel,  joint  author  with  Herbert 
Palmer  of  Sabbatum  Redivivum,  139. 

Celsus,  his  hostility  to  Christianity,  8,  12. 

Ceremonial  law,  Honour  shown  to  the  moral 
law  above,  286-289  ;  intended  only  for  a  par 
ticular  economy,  289,  294  ;  freedom  of 
Christians  from  its  obligation,  303,  304, 
306,  315. 

Ceremonies,  Rise  of  the  contest  among  the 
Protestants  of  England  about,  21,  22  ;  peti 
tion  for  their  removal  rejected  by  Convo- 
O'tion  of  1562  by  only  one  proxy  vote,  24  : 


controversial  writings  on  the  question  ot, 
24-28. 

Chafie,  Thomas,  Vicar  of  Nutshelling,  his  ti act 
on  behalf  of  the  Sabbath,  140. 

Chalmers,  Dr.  Thomas,  72,  166,  169,  219,  429, 
476,  581,  584. 

Chamberlain,  Dr.,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 

Chandler,  Dr.  Samuel,  147. 

Chapelle,  or  Capel  (Cappellus),  Louis,  his  Dis- 
putatio  de  Die  Dotninico,  110. 

Charlemagne,  386,  396,  402,  403. 

Charles  i.,  his  persecution  of  the  Nonconform 
ists,  22 ;  his  Book  of  Sports,  86,  118,  119 ; 
was  said  never  to  hunt  on  the  Lord's 
day,  120,  127,  128 ;  Second  Declaration  of 
Sports  issued  by,  128-130 ;  theatrical  per 
formances  on  the  Sabbath  before  the  Court 
of,  130-132,  137  ;  his  sentiments  as  to  the 
Lord's  day,  139,  140,  158 ;  is  dealt  with  by 
Mr.  Alexander  Henderson  for  spending  the 
afternoon  of  the  Sabbath  at  golf,  161 ;  civil 
enactments  for  promoting  the  due  obser 
vance  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  reign  of,  436, 
437,  588. 

Charles  n.,  his  persecution  of  the  Noncon 
formists,  22,  115,  158,  505  ;  profligacy  con 
sequent  upon  his  restoration,  141  ;  Sab 
bath-day  scene  in  the  Court  of,  ib.  ;  civil 
enactments  for  promoting  the  due  observ 
ance  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  reign  of,  437 ; 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath  during  his  reign, 
504. 

Charlotte,  Princess,  her  respect  for  the  Sab 
bath,  449. 

Chatellerault,  Duke  of,  supped  with  John 
Knox  on  a  Sabbath  evening,  463,  464. 

Cheerfulness  of  mind,  Tendency  of  the  Sabbath 
to  promote,  176-178. 

Chemnitz,  Martin,  his  sentiments  as  to  the 
Sabbath,  410. 

China,  229,  254,  268,  360,  361,  365. 

Christ,  subjects  of  his  conversation  on  the 
Sabbath,  329,  330  ;  performed  works  of  be 
nevolence  and  mercy  on  that  day,  332  ;  his 
incarnation,  480,  481 ;  the  sole  Lawgiver  of 
the  Church,  488,  489. 

Christian  economy,  Circumstances  justifying 
the  expectation  that  the  Sabbatic  institution 
would  be  perpetuated  under,  298-301. 

Christianity,  assailed  by  the  heathen  with  a 
severity  proportioned  to  its  aggressive 
character,  7,  554 ;  has  its  penalties  not  less 
than  had  Judaism,  344,  345. 

Christians,  Early,  punished  by  the  Romans  for 
their  faithful  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  7  ; 
manner  of  their  observing  it  described  by 
Justin  Martyr  and  Tertullian,  9,  10;  the 
observance  of  Saturday,  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
as  well  as  the  Christian,  gains  ground  among, 
especially  in  the  East,  11,  12  ;  accused  of 
practising  immorality  at  their  meetings  on 
the  Sabbath,  12  ;  vindicated  from  this 
charge,  ib. ;  why  the  days  of  their  martyr 
dom  were  called  Natalitia,  14. 

Christmas,  observed  by  the  Reformed  Church 
of  Geneva,  18,  140,  414. 

Chrysostom,  wrote  in  defence  of  the  Lord's 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


616 


d»y  against  the  Jews,  8;  encouraged  the 
observance  of  holidays,  15,  369,  370,  382-385, 
387-389,  391,  402. 

Chubb,  Thomas,  upheld  the  first  against  the 
seventh  day  of  rest,  147. 

Church,  The,  has  no  power  to  exact  a  weekly 
holy  day,  487,  488  ;  such  a  power  would  be 
an  infringement  of  Christ's  prerogative  as 
head  of  the  Church,  489  ;  and  would  place 
the  Sabbath  on  a  foundation  of  sand,  494. 

Church.  Greek.  Disregard  of  the  Sabbath  by, 
564. 

Church,  Lutheran,  205,  206,  414,  567. 

Church,  Reformed,  Popular  prejudice  general 
in,  against  the  entire  abolition  of  holidays, 
20,  21,  205,  206,  414. 

Churches,  Festivals  instituted  in  memory  of 
the  dedication  of,  126,  191. 

Church-ales,  Object  of,  126,  127. 

Cicero,  hostile  to  the  Jewish  religion  and 
Sabbath,  3  ;  yet  commends  festival  days,  4. 

Civilisation,  linked  with  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
190-193,  262,  263. 

Clark,  Allan,  writes  against  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Clarke,  author  of  History  of  the  Sabbatarians 
in  the,  United  States,  155. 

Clarke,  Mr.  George,  Rochfort,  437. 

Clarke,  Dr.  Samuel,  his  sermon  on  the  Sab 
bath,  146,  473. 

Clarkson,  Thomas,  219,  476,  554. 

Claudius,  Bishop  of  Turin,  opposes  holidays, 
16. 

Clayton,  Rev.  John,  jun. ,  his  Work  on  the  Sab 
bath,  147. 

Cleandon,  Thomas,  his  Brief  Discourse  on  the 
Sabbath,  146. 

Cleanliness,  Tendency  of  the  Sabbath  to  foster 
habits  of,  176. 

Cleaver,  Robert,  minister  of  Drayton,  wrote 
in  defence  of  the  Sabbath,  70. 

Clemangis,  Nicholas  de,  his  description  of  the 
wickedness  practised  on  holidays,  17. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  wrote  in  defence  of  the 
Lord's  day  against  the  Jews,  8  ;  his  testi 
mony  against  the  observance  of  Saturday, 
the  Jewish  Sabbath,  by  Christians,  11,  370, 
374,  377,  378,  380. 

Clement  of  Rome,  372,  377. 

Clerk-ales,  Object  of,  126,  127. 

Cobbet,  Rev.  Thomas,  of  Lynn,  and  afterwards 
of  Ipswich,  New  England,  151. 

Cocceius,  or  Coch,  John,  Professor  of  Theo 
logy  in  the  University  of  Leyden,  maintained 
that  the  Fourth  Commandment  was  cere 
monial  and  Jewish,  108,  109 ;  regarded  the 
Bible  as  a  book  of  types  and  of  words  to  be 
understood  in  every  possible  sense,  109, 
110  :  querulous  spirit  with  which  he  con 
ducted  the  Sabbath  controversy,  111. 

Cocceius,  John  Henry,  son  of  the  preceding, 
111. 

Coetlogon,  Rev.  C.  de,  147. 

Coleman,  Rev.  Lyman,  of  America,  15-1. 

Coleridge,  Samuel,  his  testimony  in  favour  of 
the  Sabbath,  173  ;  "  Table  Talk,"  465. 

Collier,  Giles,  Vicar  of  Blockley,  his  vindica 
tion  of  the  Sabbath,  140. 

Collier,  Jeremy,  the  historian.  80.  8T 


Collinges,  Dr.  John,  of  Norwich,  126  ;  his 
publication  in  confutation  of  Christmas  as  a 
divine  institution,  140 ;  his  Modest  Plea  for 
the  Lord's  day,  144. 

Colville,  William,  Principal  of  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  164. 

Colvin,  Rev.  John,  168. 

Columba,  3S9. 

Comedies  performed  on  the  Lord's  day  derived 
from  the  Church  of  Rome,  160. 

Commission,  High,  125,  129,  138. 

Commodian,  a  Christian  poet  of  the  third 
century,  mentions  the  Lord's  day,  376. 

Conder,  Josiah,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  148. 

Constantino,  the  Emperor,  his  decree  as  to  the 
Sabbath,  in  which  he  permits  agricultural 
labour,  and  orders  the  observance  of  certain 
holidays,  394,  395,  458. 

Continent,  Sabbath  desecration  on,  498,  549, 
576 ;  which  has  chiefly  sprung  from  the  un 
guarded  expressions  of  Luther  and  other 
Reformers  as  to  the  Sabbath,  578 ;  Popish 
Sabbaths  on,  597,  598. 

Conversation,  Religious,  329,  330. 

Convocation  of  1536,  20,  36  ;  of  1552,  39  ;  of 
1562,  24,  40,  42,  56,  421  ;  and  of  1571,  40. 

Cook,  Rev.  Russell  S.,  New  York,  602. 

Copping,  Mr.  John,  executed  in  reign  of  Quesn 
Elizabeth  for  circulating  a  work  against  th« 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  57,  75. 

Coppinger,  Matthew,  contended  for  the  per 
petual  obligation  of  the  seventh-day  Sab 
bath,  142. 

Cornwall,  Petition  to  Parliament  from  the 
inhabitants  of,  complaining  of  the  immoral 
character  of  most  of  the  ministers  in  that 
county,  44. 

Cotton,  John,  minister  of  Boston,  America, 
151. 

Couralt,  Augustin,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
Geneva,  opposed  to  holidays,  17 ;  expelled 
by  the  magistrates,  414. 

Council  of  Constance  in  1414,  The  subject  of 
holidays  brought  before,  16 ;  adopt  some 
measures  of  reformation,  17,  19. 

Court,  Mr.  Robert,  Glasgow,  controversy  with 
Mr.  Langley,  169. 

Covenanters  in  Scotland,  204,  219,  442 ;  their 
sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  453,  454,  549  : 
defended  from  the  attacks  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  in  his  Tales  of  My  Landlord,  453, 
454. 

Coverdale,  Myles,  39. 

Cowper,  William,  Scottish  Bishop,  a  Sabbatist, 
162. 

Cowper,  William,  the  poet,  his  testimony  to 
the  authority  and  value  of  the  Sabbath,  433, 
434,  608. 

Cox,  Richard,  Bishop,  73. 

Cox,  Robert,  168. 

Cranmer,  Thomas,  Archbishop,  his  sentiments 
as  to  the  Sabbath,  37,  38 ;  his  Catechism, 
38,  55,  424;  his  Forty-two  Articles,  39; 
committed  to  the  flames  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Mary,  39,  51. 

Crawford,  Matthew,  minister  of  Eastwood,  hla 
account  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath 


616 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


In  the  Netherlands,  114 ;  his  Work  on  the 
Sabbath,  114,  115 ;  notice  of,  115, 161,  164. 

Crease,  James,  168. 

Creation,  The,  339 ;  commemorated  in 
heaven,  350  ;  the  six  days  of,  six  natural 
days,  518-520. 

Creech,  William,  Lord  Provost  of  Edinburgh, 
his  contrast  between  the  moral  and  religious 
condition  of  Edinburgh  in  1763  and  1783, 
507-510. 

Criminals  often  trace  their  criminal  career  to 
their  desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  272. 

Croiy,  Dr.  George,  his  publication  on  the 
Sabbath,  148,  271. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  20 ;  government  of,  249 ; 
virtue  and  bravery  of  his  army,  252-254, 
473,  474. 

Crystal  Palace ;  Petitions  to  Parliament 
signed  by  numerous  medical  men  in  Lon 
don  against  opening  it  on  the  Lord's  day, 
180 ;  and  by  many  of  the  middle  and  work 
ing  classes,  603,  604. 

Cummianus,  an  Irish  Bishop,  402. 

Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  London,  reduces  the 
number  of  holidays  in  his  diocese,  19. 

Cyprian,  writes  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
against  the  Jews,  8,  368,  369,  376,  378, 
383. 

Cyril,  385,  387. 

D 

DABNEY,  Professor,  of  America,  154. 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  589. 

David,  King  of  Israel,  an  example  of  attention 
to  family  devotion,  189. 

Davidson,  Rev.  Alexander,  his  publication  in 
defence  of  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Davidson,  Mr.  John,  minister  at  Prestonpans, 
159 ;  as  moderator  of  Synod  of  Lothian, 
administered  censure  on  two  ministers 
(afterwards  archbishops)  for  Sabbath  pro 
fanation,  his  remarkable  words  on  the  occa 
sion,  159,  n. 

Davis,  Mrs.,  of  America,  authoress  of  a  His 
tory  of  Sabbatarianism,  155. 

Dawson,  Henry,  142. 

D'Aubigne,  Merle,  600. 

Decalogue,  honoured  above  the  other  laws  of 
the  Jews,  286-289 ;  adapted  and  necessary 
to  men  of  all  countries  and  times,  289, 
290  ;  traces  of  the  knowledge  of,  among  the 
patriarchs,  before  its  promulgation  from 
Sinai,  292 ;  its  obligation  declared  to  be 
permanent  under  all  economies,  292-297. 

tefoe,  Daniel,  his  account  of  the  state  of 
morality  in  Scotland  in  1717,  507,  510. 

Demoeritus,  his  hostility  to  the  Jewish  reli 
gion  *nd  Sabbath,  3. 

DenhiBi,  Baron,  concurs  in  the  issuing  of  an 
order  for  the  suppression  of  ales  and  revels 
on  the  Lord's  day  in  Somersetshire,  127. 

Deny,  250. 

Descombaz,  M.,  600. 

Devotion,  Personal,  a  specia  duty  of  the 
Sabbath,  330,  331. 

Dice-houses,  Leave  to  put  down,  granted  to 
magistrates  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  50. 

-  -ick.  Dr.  John,  47S. 


Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  his  testimony 
against  the  observance  of  Saturday  aa 
Sabbath  by  Christians,  11. 

Dionysius,  Bishop  of  Corinth,  374,  380. 

Discipline,  First  Book  of,  in  the  Kirk  of  Scot 
land,  Holidays  abolished  by,  18. 

Discipline,  Book  of,  which  became  the 
Ecclesiastical  Directory  of  the  Common 
wealth,  25. 

Dobel,  his  Work  in  refutation  of  the  seventh- 
day  Sabbath,  144. 

Dobie,  James,  on  the  law  of  Scotland,  re 
lative  to  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day, 
166. 

Dod,  John,  minister  of  Hanwell,  Oxfordshire, 
his  zeal  for  the  Sabbath,  59  ;  encomium  on, 
by  Archbishop  Ussher,  70,  91,  121. 

Doddridge,  Dr.  Philip,  147  ;  sanctiflcation  of 
the  Sabbath  in  his  family,  447,  473,  551. 

Domville,  Sir  William,  obligation  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment  on  Christians  denied 
by,  142,  143. 

Dort,  Synod  of,  in  1574,  19. 

in  1578,  its  resolutions  as  to  holidays, 

19. 

in  1618,  its  views  on  the  Sabbath,  93  ; 

petition  from,  to  the  States  General,  94,  97, 
98,  101,  103,  425. 

Douglas,  James,  of  Cavers,  166. 

Dow,  Christopher,  anti-Sabbatic  character  of 
his  Discourse  -of  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's 
Day,  134,  135 ;  a  creature  of  Archbishop 
Laud's,  136. 

Drummond,  Rev.  D.  T.  K.,  167. 

Ducie,  Lord,  589. 

Dudley,  Mr.  C.  S.,  583. 

Duncan,  Dr.,  of  Mid-Calder,  Professor  of  Pas 
toral  Theology  in  the  United  Secession 
Church,  166,  169,  429. 

Dunstan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  £92. 

Durell,  John,  his  lucubrations  on  the  ques 
tion  of  the  ceremonies,  28. 

Durham,  James,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Glas 
gow,  164,  169. 

Dury.  John,  161. 

Dutch,  The.    See  Netherlands. 

Dwight,  Dr!  Timothy,  his  five  Discourses  on 
the  Fourth  Commandment,  153  ;  good  which 
they  must  have  accomplished,  153,  154, 
473,  584, 

E 

EASTER,  The  festival,  defended  by  Chrysostom, 
15 ;  observed  by  the  reformed  Church  of 
Geneva,  18,  139. 

Eaton,  Nathanael,  a  native  of  England,  hia 
Latin  work  on  the  Sabbath  published  in 
the  Netherlands,  107. 

Ebionites,  The,  maintained  the  necessity  of 
keeping  the  whole  law  of  Moses,  10  ;  denied 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  ib.  ;  observed  both 
the  Jewish  and  Christian  Sabbath,  384. 

Ecbright,  Archbishop  of  York,  391. 

Edgar,  King,  392. 

Edge,  Mr.,  of  Manchester,  207. 

p]dgeworth,  Mrs.,  her  writings,  579. 

Edinburgh,  Contrast  between  the  moral  and 
re?igious  condition  of,  in  1763  and  1783,  507- 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


617 


51$;  tha  mvmoer  who  live  in  the  habitual 
neglect  of  public  worship  in,  561,  562. 

Edmonds,  Rev.  T.,  his  work  in  refutation  of 
the  seventh -day  Sabbath,  144. 

Edward  iv.  of  England,  458. 

Edward  vi.,  24,  40,  40,  49. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  his  three  Sermons  on  the 
Sabbath,  152-154,  193,  228,  476,  584. 

Edwards,  Dr.  Justin,  Secretary  to  the  Ameri 
can  Sabbath  Union,  154. 

Egbert,  or  Ecgbert,  Archbishop  of  York,  391. 

Egypt,  The  religion  of,  263,  365. 

Eliberis,  Council  of,  391. 

Eliot,  John,  the  apostle  of  the  Indians,  152, 
476.  477. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  her  acts  and  measures  against 
Nonconforming  ministers,  21,  23,  24,  40,  43, 
44,  47 ;  scarcity '  and  bad  character  of 
preachers  in  the  reign  of,  44,  49 ;  and  conse 
quent  irreligion,  44,  45 ;  commanded  Arch 
bishop  Grindal  to  put  down  prophesyings, 
46  (see  Grindal,  Archbishop) ;  her  desecra 
tion  of  the  Sabbath,  48 ;  her  habit  of  pro 
fane  swearing,  ib. ;  small  number  of  the 
Popish  ecclesiastics  who  quitted  their  livings 
at  her  succession,  49]  yields  to  grant  magis 
trates  authority  to  interdict  plays  on  the 
Sabbath,  50  (see  Theatres) ;  criminal  calendar 
during  her  reign,  51,  52,  57,  60  ;  principles  of 
true  liberty  not  altogether  unknown  to  her 
Council,  54  ;  means  by  which  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation  were  preserved  in  Eng 
land  during  her  reign,  55,  56 ;  two  Puritan 
ministers  executed  under,  57,  58 ;  Puritan 
ministers  suspended  under,  59 ;  quashed 
Parliamentary  bills  for  the  better  observance 
of  the  Sabbath,  59,  62,  119  ;  character  of  the 
leading  prelates  under,  59 ;  her  charge  to 
Whitgift  on  his  elevation  to  the  primacy  to 
restore  uniformity,  61 ;  liberty  of  the  press 
abridged  by,  ib. ;  subscription  required  to 
the  article  that  she  was  the  supreme  head  of 
the  Church,  66 ;  change  in  the  articles  re 
quired  to  be  subscribed,  61,  63,  127 ;  from 
the  middle  of  her  reign  to  the  Restoration,  a 
period  unequalled  for  original  literary  genius, 
191 ;  prevalence  of  the  crime  of  murder 
among  ecclesiastics  in  her  reign,  503. 

Elizabeth,  Charlotte,  her  publication  on  the 
Sabbath,  148. 

Ellis,  Mr.  Henry,  207. 

Elwall,  Edward,  142. 

Emmons,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  of  America,  154. 

England,  the  scene  of  the  earliest  conflict  as  to 
the  divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath,  34 ; 
prevalence  of  swearing  in,  in  and  before  the 
sixteenth  century,  48 ;  what  it  owes  to  the 
Reformation,  55  ;  revival  of  the  Sabbatarian 
controversy  in,  119 ;  longevity  of  the  higher 
and  middle  classes  in,  compared  with  the 
working,  174  (see  Working  Classes) ;  value  of 
life  greater  in,  than  in  any  other  country, 
254,  256 ;  its  recovery  to  Popery  considered 
in  a  conclave  of  cardinals  at  Rome,  424.  See 
Britain,  Great 

England,  The  Church  of ;  James  vi.'s  opinion 
of  the  service  of,  19,  82  ;  attempts  to  secure 
the  better  observance  of  the  existing  holi 


days  in,  19;  origin  of  the  controversy  on 
rites  and  ceremonies  in,  21 ;  sentiments  of 
the  Reformers  of,  regarding  the  Sabbath, 
36-38,  40-42  ;  dignitaries  of,  set  themselvei 
against  further  reformation,  52 ;  and  perse 
cute  the  Puritans,  ib. 

England,  Commonwealth  of,  Holidays  annulled 
by  the  Parliament  under,  22, 163  ;  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Sabbath  during  the  time  of,  503. 

Enterprise,  Useful,  promoted  bv  the  Sabbath 
244. 

Enthusiasts,  114,  150. 

Epiphanius(A.D.  368),  Bishop  of  El eutheropolis 
in  Palestine,  wrote  against  the  Ebionites,  10, 
383,  384. 

Episcopius,  Simon,  his  doctrine  overthrown 
by  Andrew  Essen,  110. 

Erskine,  Ebenezer,  minister  at  Stirling,  161, 
165. 

Erskine,  Ralph,  minister  at  Dunfermline,  165. 

Essaei,  heretics  so  called;  their  views  as  to 
the  Sabbath,  68. 

Essays,  Prize,  on  the  Sabbath,  167,  168,  192, 
443. 

Essen,  Andrew,  Professor  of  Theology  in  the 
University  of  Utrecht,  held  that  the  Fourth 
Commandment  is  moral,  108 ;  his  Disserta 
tion  on  the  Perpetual  Morality  of  the  Deca 
logue,  108,  109 ;  notice  of,  110 ;  excellent 
spirit  with  which  he  conducted  the  Sabbath 
controversy,  111 ;  his  ability  and  success  in 
defending  the  divine  authority  of  the  Sab 
bath  in  opposition  to  Burmann,  112-115. 

Ethics,  Christian,  196 ;  their  superiority  to 
those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  197. 

Eugenius,  Pope,  400. 

Eusebius  (A.D.  320),  Bishop  of  Caesarea,  wrote 
in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day  against  the  Jews, 
8 ;  and  Ebionites,  10 ;  his  clear  testimony  to 
the  Christian  Sabbath,  384,  387. 

Eustachius,  Abbot  de  Flay,  399. 

Evanson,  E.,  the  Socinian,  147. 

Evelyn,  John,  his  sketch  of  a  Sabbath-day 
scene  at  the  Court  of  Charles  n.,  141. 

Example,  Good,  its  influence  in  promoting  the 
Christian  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  685- 
590. 


FABER,  Dr.  George  Stanley,  518. 

Fairbairn,  Dr.  Patrick,  33  ;  his  publication 
on  the  Sabbatic  opinions  of  the  Reformers, 
167. 

Faith,  Observation  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh 
on  the  salutary  influence  of  preaching,  197, 
265 ;  faith  in  Christ  necessary  for  the  per 
formance  of  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath, 
334. 

Faius,  Antonius,  Professor  at  Geneva,  95, 100, 

Familists,  150. 

Family  institution,  The,  Necessity  of  the 
Sabbath  to  form  and  to  uphold,  229,  23C  ; 
deteriorates  or  flourishes  according  as  the 
Sabbath  is  neglected  or  observed,  233-241. 

Family  instruction,  one  of  the  duties  of  the 
Sabbath,  187,  328,  329;  examplas  of  the 
sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  ic  families, 
445-455. 


618 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Family  worship,  an  admirable  discipline  of 
the  intellect,  189,  327,  328 ;  directory  for, 
439;  could  not  exist  without  the  Sabbath, 
202. 

Farel,  William,  effects  the  removal  of  holidays 
from  Geneva,  17,  414 ;  his  first  experiments 
in  discipline,  408. 

Farquhar,  David,  machinist,  Dundee,  167. 

Farre,  Dr.  John  Richard,  his  testimony  to  the 
necessity  of  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath  to  man's 
physical  wellbeing,  174,  179,  180,  182,  209, 
472,  498,  551. 

Fathers,  The,  of  the  first  three  centuries,  list 
of  those  of  them  who  defended  the  Christian 
Sabbath  against  the  Jews  and  Pagans,  8-12  ; 
names  by  which  they  designated  the  Chris 
tian  Sabbath,  368-370  ;  their  testimony  that 
the  first  day  of  the  week  was  sacredly  ob 
served  by  the  Christians,  372-376;  their 
sentiments  as  to  the  Sabbath,  376-381. 

Fathers,  The,  in  fourth  century  and  down 
wards,  held  the  doctrine  of  a  primaeval 
Sabbath,  381-383  ;  and  that  the  seventh  day 
of  the  week  was  abolished,  and  the  first  ap 
pointed  in  its  place,  383-387  ;  their  practical 
teaching  as  to  the  Sabbath,  387-390. 

Fearon,  Henry  Bradshaw,  142,  143. 

Feasts,  Romish.     See  Holidays. 

Felix,  Minucius,  vindicates  the  Christians 
from  the  charge  of  practising  immorality  at 
their  meetings  on  the  Sabbath,  12. 

Festivals.     See  Churches,  and  Holidays. 

Fisher,  Edward,  undertakes  to  prove  that 
Christmas  and  the  Lord's  day  are  of  equal 
authority,  140. 

Fisher,  Mr.  James,  minister  in  Glasgow,  his 
Catechism,  165. 

Fisher,  William  Logan,  his  daring  opposition 
to  the  Sabbath,  155, 156. 

Fleming,  Caleb,  his  writings  in  refutation  of 
the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  144. 

Fletcher,  Rev.  J.  W.,  of  Madeley,  582. 

Fletcher,  Andrew,  of  Saltoun,  506. 

Forbes,  Mr.  John,  minister  of  Alford,  92,  161. 

Forbes,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  Glasgow,  166. 

Forbes,  J.  D.,  Principal  of  the  United  College 
of  St.  Salvator  and  St.  Leonard,  St.  Andrews, 
his  testimony  to  the  authority  and  value  of 
the  Sabbath,'  436,  472. 

Foster,  John,  148,  194,  473,  503. 

Foster,  Rev.  William,  of  Collon,  Ireland,  his 
reply  to  Archbishop  Whately  on  the  Sab 
bath,  148. 

Fox,  John,  20,  36,  39,  55. 

France,  Disregard  to  cleanliness  produced  by 
the  abolition  of  the  Sabbath  in,  176  ;  found 
it  necessary  to  restore  the  Christian  Sab 
bath,  182,  200,  201  ;  less  work  done  when  the 
Sabbath  was  abolished  in,  210,  211,  213,  214  ; 
corrupting  influence  of  Popery  on  the  family 
institution  in,  230,  231  ;  atheism  more  de 
structive  to  the  family  institution  in,  than 
Popery,  232  ;  cause  of  its  low  domestic 
condition,  235,  241,  244,  250-253,  256 ;  efforts 
to  correct  Sabbath  profanation  in,  258 ;  re 
sults  of  the  triumph  of  infidelity  in,  262, 
363,  474,  475,  491,  498,  500,  501;  gain  it 
would  make  by  Sabbath  observance,  553; 


infidelity  in,  began  with  the  higher  cl 

606. 

Franeker,  University  of,  25,  97,  99, 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine,  Sabbath  in,  598. 
Freedom,  is  fostered  and  maintained  by  th« 

Sabbath,  218. 

French,  Emperor  of  the,  604. 
French  Protestants,  hostile  to  holidays,  19 ; 

compelled  by   Edict  of  Nantes  to  abstain 

from  work  on  the  Roman  Catholis  holidays, 

ib. 
French  Protestant  refugees  at    the  Cape  itt 

Africa,  their  high  Christian  character,  235, 

236. 
Frith,  John,  his  erroneous  sentiments  on.  th« 

Sabbath,  36,  464. 
Fry,  Mrs.,  199. 
Fulke,  Dr.    William,    his   work   against  the 

Rhemes  New  Testament,  and  in  vindication 

of  the  Sabbath,  62,  63 ;   his  erudition,  64, 

118. 

Fuller,  Andrew,  265. 
Fuller,  Thomas,  the  historian,  58,  63,  69-76, 

79,  81,  86, 122  126. 


GALLAHS,  Nicolas  des,  one  of  the  ministers  oi 
Geneva,  418. 

Gambier,  Admiral  Lord,  his  sanctification  of 
the  Sabbath,  474,  589. 

Gardiner,  Bishop  Stephen,  his  sentiments  as 
to  the  Sabbath,  37. 

Gardiner,  Colonel,  227. 

Gataker,  Thomas,  junior,  428. 

Geneva,  The  removal  of  holidays  from,  by 
Farel  and  Viret,  17  ;  holidays  re-established 
and  again  abolished  in,  18,  414,  468 ;  cen 
sured  by  James  vi.  for  keeping  Easter  and 
Christmas,  18,  82  ;  professors  in  the  Aca 
demy  of,  95  ;  the  Sabbath  in,  in  1851,  598, 
600 ;  Conference  of  Evangelical  Allianc« 
at,  601. 

Geological  periods,  The  six  days  of  creation 
not  to  be  understood  of,  171,  493,  518- 
520. 

George  in.,  437,  474,  589. 

George  iv.,  437,  582. 

Germany,  Protracted  controversy  on  the  Sab 
bath  question  in  some  parts  of,  33,  360  ; 
origin  of  Sabbath  desecration  in,  570,  573  ; 
Stuttgard  Conference  of  1850  in,  for  pro 
moting  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath, 
590,  591,  599;  the  Sabbath  in,  498,  584, 
598-600. 

Gerson,  John  Charlier,  Chancellor  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Paris,  his  sentiments  as  to  holi 
days  in  his  sermon  before  the  Council  of 
Constance  in  1414,  17. 

Gib,  Adam,  minister  of  the  Gospel,  Edin 
burgh,  26,  27. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  the  historian,  227. 

Gibbons,  Dr.  Thomas,  147. 

Gibson,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  London,  147. 

Giliillan,  Rev.  Samuel,  of  Comrie,  his  Work  on 

the  Sabbath,  165. 

I   Gillespie,  Mr.  George,  his  Work  on  \iio  quea 
tion  of  the  ceremonies,  24,  27. 


Gilpin,  Rev.  Joshua,  226,  448,  449. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


619 


Glasgow,  Moral  and  religious  condition  of,  in 
1703,  510,  511. 

Glas,  John,  165. 

Glen,  Rev.  Jolm,  Portobello,  his  Work  on  the 
Sabbath,  166. 

God,  Some  savags  tribes  have  no  notion  of  a, 
261  ;  proof  of  the  unity  of,  479  ;  his  will 
made  known  to  us  in  various  ways,  540. 

Goguet,  Anthony  Yves,  President  de,  365. 

Gomar,  Francis,  Professor  of  Theology  suc 
cessively  at  Leydcn  and  Groningen,  94- 
100  ;  notice  of,  103  ;  his  Investigation  of  the 
Sabbath  described,  103,  104  (see  Rivet, 
Andrew) ;  his  reputation  not  enhanced  by 
his  Sabbatic  efforts,  104 ;  his  answer  to 
Rivet,  105-107. 

Goodwin,  John,  24. 

Goodwin,  Philip,  minister  at  Watford,  his 
work  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath,  140. 

Gordon,  John,  168. 

Gorrie,  D.,  16S. 

Gouge,  Thomas,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  145,  224. 

Gouge,  Dr.  William,  minister  of  Blackfriars, 
London,  138. 

Government,  Divine,  Evidence  for  a  perpetual 
Sabbath  from  unity  of,  479  ;  from  its  plans 
being  progressive  in  their  development, 
480,  48*1  ;  from  its  regard  to  order,  481, 
482  ;  from  its  benevolence,  483,  484  ;  from 
its  being  a  government  by  law,  4S4  ;  from 
its  assertion  of  exclusive  legislation,  487. 

Government,  Good,  The  Sabbath  contributes 
to  secure,  248. 

Grahame,  James,  his  poem  on  the  Sabbath, 
165. 

Grainger,  R.  D.,  surgeon,  F.R.S.,  175. 

Grascome,  Samuel,  denied  the  obligatiorf  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment  on  Christians, 
142,  143  ;  rejected  the  doctrine  of  a  prim- 
aval  Sabbath,  146,  147. 

Greece  or  Greeks,  229,  262 ;  the  religion  of, 
263,  363. 

Greek  Writers,  their  hostility  to  the  religion 
of  the  Jews,  3. 

Greenham,  Richard,  minister  at  Dry  Dray- 
ton,  his  zeal  for  the  Sabbath,  59 ;  his 
Treatise  of  the  Sabbath,  widely  circulated  in 
MS.  many  years  before  it  was  printed,  65  ; 
his  peaceful  end,  66  ;  his  Treatise  on  the  Sab 
bath  published,  71  ;  was  a  strict  observer 
of  the  Sabbath,  72  ;  his  labours  and  liber 
ality,  ib.;  his  nonconformity,  73,  118,  584. 

Gregoire,  Abbe,  232. 

Gregory,  John,  wrote  in  defence  of  the  Sab 
bath,  146. 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  370,  382,  383,  385,  388, 
389. 

Gregory,  of  Tours,  385,  400. 

Grcville,  Dr.  Robert  Kaye,'16S. 

Grindal,  Edmund,  successively  Bishop  of  [ 
London,  and  Archbishop  of  York  and 
Canterbury,  his  character,  23,  44 ;  com 
manded  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  put  down 
prophesyings,  46 ;  his  letter  of  remon 
strance  to  her,  declining  to  obey  this  com 
mand,  46,  47,  51. 

Orotius,  Hugo,  100. 


Guild,  Dr.  Wm.,  Principal  of  King's  College, 

Aberdeen,  162. 

Guinea,  The  people  of,  230,  359,  362. 
Gurney,  Baron,  206. 
Gurney,  Joseph  John,  his  publication  on  the 

Sabbath,  148,  154. 
Guthrie,  Mr.   William,  minister  of  Fenwick, 

161. 

H 

HAKEWILL,  Dr.  George,  Rector  of  Exeter  Col 
lege,  Oxford,  138. 

Haldaue,  James,  a  writer  on  the  Sabbath,  ;  56, 
169. 

Haldane,  Robert,  his  tracts  on  the  Sabbath, 
167,  169. 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  146,  431,  473,  550,  586. 

Hall,  Joseph,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  73,  74,  118. 

Hall,  Robert,  of  Leicester,  148,  265,  473,  476, 
579. 

Hallet,  Joseph,  junr.,  146. 

Halyburton,  Thomas,  Professor  of  Divinity  at 
St.  Andrews,  161. 

Hamilton,  Dr.  Richard  Winter,  148,  837,  448. 

Hamilton,  Dr.  Robert,  166,  168. 

Hamilton,  Sir  ^Villiam,  24. 

Hammersley,  Richard,  a  barber,  wrote  against 
the  violation  of  the  Sabbath,  146. 

Hammond,  Dr.  Henry,  24 ;  regarded  the  Sab 
bath  as  a  Jewish  and  temporary  ordinance, 
134,  136,  142. 

Hampshire,  New,  Contrast  between  two  neigh 
bourhoods  in,  from  their  difference  as  to  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  238,  239. 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  James  vi.  's  abuse 
of  the  Puritans  at,  22,  23  ;  flattery  offered  to 
James  by  Archbishop  Whitgift  at,  54,  82. 

Hanson,  his  Work  in  refutation  of  the  seventh- 
day  Sabbath,  144. 

Happiness,  Personal,  The  Sabbath  eminently 
conducive  to,  222-227. 

Harrington,  Lord,  Sanctiflcation  of  the  Sab 
bath  in  the  family  of,  445,  474,  589. 

Harrison,  Dr.,  of  the  Ohio  Medical  College, 
180. 

Health,  Favourable  bearings  of  the  Sabbath 
on,  254,  495. 

Heathen,  The,  Jewish  religion  embraced  by 
some  of,  4 ;  hostility  of,  to  Christianity,  7  ; 
traces  of  the  Sabbath  among,  272,  274  ;  law 
under  which  they  are  placed,  293  ;  holidays 
of,  a  corruption  of  the  Sabbatic  institution, 
364. 

Heaven,  Sabbatism  of,  349-358. 

Heidan,  Abraham,  Professor  of  Theology  in 
the  University  of  Leyden,  maintained  that 
the  Fourth  Commandment  was  merely  cere 
monial  and  Jewish,  108  ;  his  Work  on  the 
Sabbath,  108,  109 ;  it  has  little  merit,  110 ; 
bitter  spirit  with  which  he  conducted  th« 
Sabbath  controversy,  111,  112. 

Helvetic  Confession,  Holidays  sanctioned  by, 
18  ;  its  doctrine  as  to  the"Sabbath,  406.  416, 
463 ;  the  fast  of  Lent  and  extreme  unction 
rejected  by,  413  ;  approved  of  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  with 
the  exception  of  the  part  which  tolerated 
holidays,  421. 


620 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Hemans,  Mrs.,  227. 

Henderson,  Mr.  Alexander,  one  cf  the  minis 
ters  of  Edinburgh,  wrote  in  opposition  to 
the  five  articles  of  Perth,  26  (see  Charles  i.) ; 
had  a  chief  hand  in  drawing  up  the  Confes 
sion  of  Faith,  etc.,  162,  425,  428. 

Henderson,  John,  of  Park,  his  munificent 
liberality  in  the  cause  of  the  Sabbath,  167, 584. 

Hengstenberg,  Dr. ,  his  loose  views  as  to  the 
Christian  Sabbath,  34,  117  ;  his  account  of 
the  origin  of  the  controversy  on  the  Sabbath 
in  the  Netherlands  incorrect,  02,  169  ;  has 
not  fairly  presented  the  views  of  the  Re 
formers  on  the  Sabbath,  460,  464. 

Henry  vin.  of  England,  Various  holidays  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  abolished  by,  20.  See 
Tyndale,  William. 

Henry,  Matthew,  wrote  against  the  violation  of 
the  Sabbath,  146,  446,  473. 

Henry,  Philip,  225,  226 ;  sanctification  of  the 
Sabbath  in  the  family  of,  446,  447. 

Herbert,  George,  147,  323,  32<5. 

Hervey,  James,  225,  584. 

Hessey,  Dr.  James  Augustus,  his  Sunday  re 
ferred  to,  1 ;  article  on,  in  North  British 
Review,  169. 

Hesychius,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  385. 

Hetlierington,  John,  held  the  opinion  that 
every  day  is  alike,  142. 

Hey,  William,  F.R.S.,  of  Leeds,  his  strictures 
on  Dr.  Paley's  views  of  the  Sabbath,  148,  210, 
226,  551,  587. 

Heylyn,  Dr.  Peter,  16,  17,  53,  71,  74,  75,  77-81, 
118  ;  his  character  of  Broad's  work  on  the 
Sabbath,  119  ;  translates  into  English  Dr. 
Prideaux's  Latin  oration  on  the  Sabbatic  in 
stitution,  120,  121  ;  publication  of  his  History 
of  the  Sabbath,  132  ;  anti-Sabbatic  character 
of  this  work,  132-134  ;  his  Brief  and  Moderate 
Answer  to  Henry  Burton,  135;  a  protege  of 
Archbishop  Laud,  136  ;  his  renewed  attack 
on  the  Sabbath,  140,  141  ;  is  successfully  met 
in  the  field  of  history  by  Richard  Baxter, 
145,  146  ;  is  replied  to  by  James  of  Cobham, 
148  ;  denied  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
at  the  creation,  and  dated  its  institution  at 
the  promulgation  of  the  Decalogue,  278,  404, 
405,  584. 

Higgins,  Godfrey,  Obligation  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment  on  Christians  denied  by, 
142,  143. 

Higher  and  wealthier  classes,  Conduct  of,  a 
cause  of  prevalent  Sabbath  desecration. 
572-574. 

Highlanders  in  America,  260. 

Hilary,  369,  382. 

Hilder&ham,  Arthur,  91. 

Hill,  Robert,  Rector  of  Stanhow,  his  Rcj^ly  to 
Drs.  Heylyn  and  Wallis,  146. 

Hill,  Rev.  Micaiah,  author  of  the  prize  essay, 
The  Sabbath  made  for  Man,  148. 

Hipi>olytus,  wrote  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
against  the  Jews,  8. 

Hodge,  Dr.  Charles,  of  America,  his  defence  of 
the  Sabbath,  155. 

Hogarth,  205. 

Holden,  Rev.  George,  hia  Christian  Sabbath, 
148,  584. 


Holidays,  Origin  of,  14 ;  evils  that  grew  out  of; 
14-16  ;  the  later  Fathers  encouraged  the  ob 
servance  of,  15 ;  names  of  some  opponents 
of,  15,  16  (see  Constantine) ;  the  observance 
of,  abolished  in  Scotland  at  the  Reformation, 
18,  413,  421  ;  sanctioned  by  the  Helvetic 
Confession,  18  (see  Belgic  churches  ;  French 
Protestants  ;  Henry  vin.; and  Churches,  Re 
formed)  ;  introduction  of.  into  Scotland,  22  ; 
annulled  by  the  English  Parliament  under 
the  Commonwealth,  ib.  ;  Wheatly's  argu 
ments  in  support  of,  28  ;  arguments  of  Dr. 
Ames  and  Dr.  Owen  against,  29,  30 ;  ques 
tions  involved  in  the  controversy  as  to,  30, 
31  ;  evils  of  the  retention  of,  and  benefits 
which  have  resulted  from  the  abolition  of, 
as  proved  from  history,  31,  32;  confused 
notions  of  the  Sabbath  arising  from  its  hav 
ing  been  mixed  up  with,  35  ;  argument  of 
the  Rhemes  New  Testament  for  the  Church's 
authority  to  appoint,  63 ;  Puritans  charged 
with  upholding  the  Sabbath  at  the  expense 
of,  76  (see  Netherlands) ;  written  against  by 
Koelman,  116,  117  ;  debasing  influence  of, 
in  the  Church  of  Rome,  205  ;  impoverishing 
effect  of  the  multitude  of,  209,  317  ;  origin 
ated  in  a  well-meant  though  objectionable 
motive,  400,  458;  closely  allied  by  the  Council 
of  Trent  with  the  Sabbath,  423  ;  injury 
which  the  Sabbath  and  religion  have  sus 
tained  from,  457-460,  464  ;  most  of  the  Re 
formers  erred  as  to,  468  ;  power  claimed  by 
the  Pope  to  substitute  them  for  the  Sabbath, 
489,  492,  515.  See  Heathen. 

Holland,  Protracted  controversy  in,  on  the 
Sabbath  question,  33,  253,  256,  425  ;  reason 
why  the  -Pilgrim  Fathers  resolved  to  leave, 
91/504  :  observance  of  the  Sabbath  in,  237. 
See  Netherlands. 

Homes,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  his  essay,  The  Sabbath- 
day's  Rest  from  Controversie,  146. 

Homilies  of  the  Church  of  England,  40,  42,  43, 
46,  55,  64,  69,  75,  86,  118,  124,  133,  139,  421, 
424-426,  428,  438,  452. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  of  New  England,  151. 

Hooker,  Richard,  25  ;  character  of  his  Ecclesi 
astical  Polity,  ib.  ;  maintained  the  immutable 
obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  118. 

Hooper,  John,  Bishop,  contended  against 
clerical  vestments,  24 ;  held  the  moral  ob 
ligation  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  38,  39, 
64  ;  was  committed  to  the  flames  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary,  39. 

Hoornbeek,  John,  Professor  of  Theology  in  the 
University  of  Leyden,  held  that  the  Fourth 
Commandment  is  moral,  108,  109  ;  notice 
of,  109,  110  ;  excellent  spirit  with  which 
he  conducted  the  Sabbath  controversy, 
111. 

Hope,  Dr.,  of  London,  176. 

Hopkins,  Ezekiel,  Bishop  of  Derry,  wrote  in 
support  of  the  Sabbath,  146,  432,  473. 

Hopkins,  Dr.  Samuel,  of  America,  153. 

Horace,  4. 

Home,  Dr.  Thomas,  his  pamphlet  on  th« 
Sabbath,  147. 

Horsley,  Bishop  Samuel,  his  three  Sermons  on 
the  Sabbath,  141,  148 ;  argues  that  the  sii 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


C21 


days  of  ireation  were  six  natural  days,  519, 

520,  584 

Howard,  John,  219,  476-478,  586. 
Howe,  John.  24,  140  ;  his  character,  224,  473. 
Howell,  John,    Presbyter  of  Church  of  Eng 
land,  wrote  against  the  violation   of  the 

Sabbath,  146. 
Hughes,  George,  of  Plymouth,  his  Aphorisms, 

145. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  Von,  365. 
Hume,  David,  21,  242,  261,  476. 
Humphrey,  Dr.  Heman,  of  Araherst  College, 

America,  his  Essays  reprinted,  147,  154,  180. 
Humphries  (or  Humfrey),  John,  wrote  against 

the  violation  of  the  Sabbath,  146. 
Hunter,  John,  168. 
Hutchinson,  Ann,  of  New  England,  150. 


IMMORALITY,  Refutation  of  the  charge  that 
the  Sabbath  has  a  tendency  to  produce, 
502-512. 

Independents,  The,  Confession  of  Faith  drawn 
up  by,  428. 

Indies,  West,  Change  produced  by  mission 
aries  among  the  negroes  in,  593,  594. 

Infidelity,  Hostility  of,  to  the  Sabbath,  201, 
205,  206,  219  ;  civilisation  will  not  protect 
against  anarchy  from,  262  ;  results  of  the 
triumph  of,  in  France,  262,  264. 

Infidel  publications,  Vast  number  of,  579. 

Innes,  Dr.  William,  of  Edinburgh,  166,  539, 
540. 

Instruction  of  families,  Religious,  328,  329. 

Intellectual  improvement,  Influence  of  the 
Sabbath  in  promoting,  183-193. 

Ireland,  its  criminal  calendar,  in  recent  years, 
compared  with  that  of  England  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  52  ;  poverty  of  its  Roman 
Catholic  population,  214 ;  condition  of  its 
Roman  Catholic  population  compared  with 
the  province  of  Ulster,  247,  250,  256,  258  ; 
emigration  from,  to  Britain,  a  cause  of  in 
creased  Sabbath  desecration,  576. 

Irenseus,  writes  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
against  the  Jews,  9,  369,  374,  379,  380,  382. 

Irenaeus  Philaletnes  (an  assumed  name),  an 
ingenious  work  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath 
by,  139. 

Irish  Church  Articles,  ratified  by  James  I.  of 
England,  in  1615,  83. 

Ironside,  Gilbert,  his  Seven  Questions  of  tlie 
Sabbath,  and  its  anti-Sabbatic  character, 
135,  137. 

Isidore,  Bishop  of  Seville,  385,  389. 

Israelites,  The,  under  Egyptian  bondage,  319. 

Italy,  213,  214,  244,  245  ;  social  disorder  of, 
250  ;  low  value  of  life  in,  256,  258,  262,  360. 

Ives,  Jeremiah,  his  work  in  refutation  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  144. 


JACKSON,  Alexander,  silversmith,  his  Treatise 

on  the  Sabbath,  165. 
Jamaica,    Change  produced  by  missionaries 

among  the  negroes  in,  237,  593,  594. 
James  i.  of  Scotland,  399. 
James  vi.  of  Scotland  and  i.  of  England,  his 


encomium  on  the  Reformed  Kirk  of  Scotland, 
18 ;  Millenary  petition  presented  by  the  Puri 
tans  to,  21, 22, 82,  83;  his  hostility  to  the  Puri 
tans,  22  (see  Calderwood,  David ;  and  Hamp 
ton  Court  Conference);  the  first  anti-Sabbatic 
publication  dedicated  to,  74-76  ;  hopes  enter 
tained  by  the  Puritans  from,  82,  83 ;  the 
I  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  enjoined  in 
his  Basilicon  Down,  82  ;  his  proclamation 
against  bear  and  bull-baiting  on  the  Sab 
bath,  82,  85 ;  legislation  of  his  first  Parlia 
ment  on  the  Sabbath,  83  ;  Declaration  for 
Sports  on  the  Lord's  day  issued  by,  83,  15S 
(see  Sports  on  the  Lord's  day);  comedy 
acted  on  a  Sabbath  evening  before,  89,  119, 
127,  128,  415  ;  civil  enactment  in  his  reign 
for  promoting  the  due  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  436,  588. 
James  n.  of  England,  his  severe  persecution  of 

the  Nonconformists,  22,  23,  158. 
James,  Rev.  William,  of  Cobham,  his  reply  to 

Dr.  Heylyn,  148. 

Jameson,  Rev.  John,  of  Methven,  sanctifica 
tion  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  family  of,  450, 
451. 

Jamieson,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  Edinburgh,  429,  473. 
Jay,  Rev.  William,  of  Bath,  452. 
Jeanes,    Henry,   rector,    his   character   as  a 

controversial  writer,  24,  26. 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    President   of    America, 

264. 

Jeffreys,  George,  Lord  Chief-Jiistiee,  22. 
Jephson,  Alexander,  his  Discourse  on  the  Reli 
gious   Observation  of  the  Lord's   Day,    141, 
146. 
Jerome,  wrote  in  defence  of  holidays.  16,  370, 

381. 
Jewel,  John,  bishop,  39 ;  his  Apology,  42,  43, 

55. 

Jews,  The,  differences  between  them  and  the 
Pagans  on  the  question  of  the  Sabbath,  2-7  ; 
allusion  of  Horace  to  their  being  spread  over 
the  Roman  empire,  4  ;  instance  in  which 
justice  is  done  to  their  religion  by  Tacitus, 
5  ;  defend  their  religion  and  institutions  by 
the  sword,  ib. ;  by  diplomacy,  6  ;  and  by 
the  pen,  ib.  ;  are  to  be  blamed  for  thinking 
it  wrong  to  resist  their  assailants  on  the  Sab 
bath,  5,  6 ;  were  unrelenting  persecutors  oi 
the  primitive  Christians,  7  ;  their  observance 
of  days  not  obligatory  on  Christians,  10  ; 
converts  to  Christianity  were  numerous  in 
the  East  among,  11  ;  festivals  of,  29  ;  variety 
of  practice  as  to  the  observance  of  their  Sab 
bath  among,  9,  563,  571. 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  143,  473,  609. 
Johnstone,  Rev.  William  Henry,  his  publica 

tion  on  the  Sabbath,  148. 
Jona,  or  Jonas,  Bishopof  Orleans,  403. 
Jonas,  Justus,  junr.,  38. 
Jones,  Herbert,  his  work  in  refutation  if  the 

seventh-day  Sabbath,  144. 
Jones,  Sir  William,  434,  473. 
Jordan,  Rev.  John,  Light  thrown  by,  on  sey- 

tenary  institutions  in  heathendom,  149. 
Jortin,  Dr.  John,  5C?. 

Josephus,  4-6  ;  light  shed  by  his  history  on  th» 
sacred  Scriptures,  6,  7 ;  not  a  Christian,  6 


27* 


622 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


bis  testimony  to  the  existence  of  the  Sab 
bath  during  the  Jewish  economy,  546. 

Judaism,  State  of,  in  the  first  century,  7  ;  sub 
stantially  one  with  the  Christian  system, 
516. 

Judges,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the  Sab 
bath,  473. 

Judgments,  Divine,  connexion  of,  with  the 
violation  of  the  Sabbath,  400,  401. 

/  adicial  law,  Honour  shown  to  the  moral  law 
above  the,  286-290,  294. 

J  ulian,  the  Apostate,  contemplated  the  adop 
tion  of  an  institution  similar  to  the  Sabbath 
for  reviving  heathenism,  7  ;  adopted  from 
Christianity  the  system  of  preaching  for  the 
same  purpose,  200,  395. 

Junius,  Francis,  Professor  at  Leyden,  his  sen 
timents  on  the  Sabbath,  93. 

Juvenal,  ridicules  the  Sabbath  of  the  Jews,  3 ; 
his  misrepresentation  of  the  Jewish  religion, 
•i,  5. 

K 

KAMES,  Lord,  his  testimony  to  the  authority 
and  value  of  the  Sabbath,  432,  473. 

Keach,  Benjamin,  his  Work  in  defence  of  the 
Lord's  day,  144 ;  his  defective  doctrine  on   i 
the  Sabbath,  146. 

Kennicott,  Dr.,  declares  for  a  perpetual  Sab-    | 
bath,  147,  473. 

Kiugsmill,  Rev.  Joseph,  149. 

Kirk  ton.  James,  minister  of  Edinburgh,  161,    j 
505. 

Knowledge,  an  element  in  social  prosperity 
aud  happiness,  259,  260;  the  Sabbath  con 
ducive  to  promote,  ib. 

Knox,  John,  160 ;  held  a  divine  and  permanent 
Sabbath,  419-422 ;  representation  that  he 
regarded  the  Sabbath  to  have  been  an  exclu 
sively  Jewish  institution,  unfounded,  463, 
464,  467 ;  none  of  the  Reformers  so  decided 
against  holidays  as,  468,  469. 

Kcelman,  James,  his  Work,  DeHistoire,  etc.,  1 ; 
a  laborious  and  able  writer,  92,  108,  115  ; 
notice  of,  116,  117  ;  his  Work  on  the  Sabbath 
a  complete  thesaurus  on  its  subject,  ib. 


LABOUR,  Incessant,  Demoralizing  tendency  of, 
194,  195,  213  ;  Burke's  .testimony  against, 
217 ;  detrimental  to  the  commercial  interests 
of  a  community,  210,  211,  243,  268,  269;  rest 
from  secular  labour  one  of  the  duties  of  the 
Sabbath,  317,  322. 

Loctantius,  383. 

La  ing,  Rev.  Benjamin,  his  publication  on  the 
Sabbath,  168. 

Lake,  Bishop  Arthur,  held  the  same  senti 
ments  with  Dr.  Bownd  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
77  ;  publication  of  his  work  in  defence  of  the 
Sabbath,  138. 

Langley,  Mr.  J.  Baxter,  replied  to  by  Rev. 
Robert  M'Guire  on  the  Sabbath,  148,  169. 

Laodicea,  Council  of,  334,  387. 

Laplace,  his  testimony  to  the  necessity  of 
religion  to  the  happiness  and  honour  of 
society,  242,  475. 

Latlmer,  Hugh,  Bishop,  his  sentiments  on 


the  Sabbath,  37;  was  committed  to  the 
flames  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  39. 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop,  chief  instigator 
of  Charles  i.  to  the  persecution  of  the  Non 
conformists,  22,  76 ;  probably  encouraged 
James  vi.  to  publish  the  Declaration  for 
Sports  on  the  Lord's  Day,  84,  124  ;  his  letter 
to  Bishop  Pierce  against  the  suppression  of 
ales  and  revels  on  the  Sabbath,  127,  128 ; 
raised  to  the  primacy,  128;  a  zealous  abettor 
of  the  Second  Declaration  of  Sports,  129, 
132,  134-136  ;  his  persecuting  anti-Sabbatic 
policy  denounced  in  Parliament  by  Sir  B. 
Rudyerd,  137,  139,  150,  151. 

Law  of  God.  A  formal  command  not  necessary 
to  constitute  a,  540,  541  ;  a  general  and 
permanent  law  may  spring  out  of  local  and 
temporary  circumstances,  541-543. 

Lawson,  Dr.  George,  Professor,  of  Selkirk, 
Sanctiflcation  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  family 
of,  449. 

Lawson,  John,  his  work  in  defence  of  the 
Sabbath,  139. 

Lawyers  and  the  Sabbath,  560. 

Lee,  John,  Principal  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  160,  453,  454,  473,  506,  511. 

Lee,  Samuel,  Professor,  his  reply  to  Arch 
bishop  Whately  on  the  Sabbath,  148,  473. 

L'Estrange,  Hamon,  son  of  Sir  Hamon 
L'Estrange,  his  Work  in  defence  of  the 
Sabbath,  138. 

Leighton,  Dr.  Robert,  Archbishop,  164,  269 ; 
his  testimony  to  the  authority  and  value  of 
the  Sabbath,  431,  476,  578,  584. 

Lemon,  Mr.  James,  444. 

Leo  i.,  Bishop  of  Rome,  385. 

Leo,  "the  Philosopher,"  Emperor,  in  tha 
ninth  century,  386,  395,  396,  401,  403. 

Leo  x.,  Pope,  191. 

Leopold,  Prince,  his  respect  for  the  Sabbath, 
449. 

Lewelyn,  Rev.  William,  Leominster,  147. 

Lewis,  Rev.  James,  168. 

Ley,  Rev.  John,  pastor  of  Great  Budworth, 
his  two  treatises  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath, 
138. 

Leyden,  University  of,  25  ;  care  of  the  States- 
General  in  electing  sound  as  well  as  learned 
professors  in,  95,  99,  100,  108,  109. 

Liberty,  True,  Ignorance  of  the  principles 
of,  an  inadequate  apology  for  persecution, 
54. 

Life,  Average  duration  of,  in  different  coun 
tries,  256. 

Lightfoot,  Dr.  John,  428,  473. 

Limborch,  Philip,  165. 

Literature,  linked  with  the  Christian  Sabbath, 
190-193. 

Littleton,  Dr.  Edward,  432. 

Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  Doctrine 
of,  as  to  the  Sabbath,  425,  426. 

Livingstone,  John,  his  labours  in  Ireland, 
162. 

Locke,  John,  the  friend  of  the  Sabbath,  153, 
193,  432,  473. 

Loe,  Robert,  author  of  the  first  anti-Sabbatic 
publication,  75  ;  which  was  a  fitting  pr^ 
cursor  of  the  Bock  of  Sports,  76. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


623 


London,  A  petition  from  the  city  of,  to  Par 
liament  in  1579,  complaining  of  the  scarcity 
and  negligence  of  ministers,  45-47  ;  plague 
of  1574  in,  50  ;  and  of  1578,  53  ;  ease  with 
which  peace  and  order  are  preserved  in, 
compared  with  Paris,  250 ;  number  who 
have  abandoned  church-going  in,  233,  561  ; 
quiet  and  order  which  reign  on  the  Sabbath 
in,  552 ;  contrasted  at  different  periods 
with  its  religious  and  moral  condition  dur 
ing  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth,  503, 
504 ;  exertions  on  behalf  of  the  Sabbath 
by  the  working  and  middle  classes  in,  603, 
604. 

London,  Lord  Mayors  of,  concern  evinced  by 
many  of  them  for  the  Sabbath  in  the  time 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  57 ;  Lord  Mayor  of, 
and  James  i.,  87. 

London,  City  Mission  of,  236,  581,  605. 

Longevity,  Favourable  bearings  of  the  Sab 
bath  on,  254-257;  longevity  of  the  patriarchs, 
283,  284. 

Lorimer,  Rev.  John  G,  Glasgow,  his  publica 
tion  on  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Louis,  the  Pious,  son  of  Charlemagne,  386, 396. 

Louis  xiv.  of  France,  191. 

Lowe,  Rev.  John,  of  Huddersfleld,  his  pam 
phlet  on  the  Sabbath,  147. 

Lower  animals,  Physical  necessity  of  the 
Sabbath  to,  183. 

Lucerne,  Sabbath  in,  598. 

Luther,  Martin,  his  disapproval  of  holidays, 
17,  19,  33,  414;  in  his  zeal  against  the 
Church  of  Rome,  used  unguarded  language 
respecting  the  Mosaic  law  and  the  Sab 
bath,  35,  36  ;  principles  of  true  liberty  not 
altogether  unknown  to,  54  ;  held  the  doc 
trine  of  a  primaeval  Sabbath,  383,  405,  406, 
411  ;  regarded  the  Sabbath  as  reasonable, 
useful,  and  indispensable,  407  ;  enforced  its 
sacred  observance,  409,  410  ;  believed  thst 
the  Lord's  day  comes  under  the  direction  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment,  418 ;  vindica 
tion  of,  from  alleged  hostility  to  the  Sab 
bath,  458-460,  463-466  ;  to  be  his  own  inter 
preter,  465  ;  defends  himself  against  the 
charge  of  Antinomiauism,  466  ;  his  latest 
expressed  opinions  as  to  the  Sabbath,  466, 
407  ;  erred,  to  some  extent,  in  regard  to  the 
Sabbath,  467  ;  and  as  to  holidays,  468 ;  de 
sired  the  abolition  of  holidays,  ib. ;  in 
jurious  effects  of  his  unguarded  expressions 
as  to  the  Sabbath,  578,  584. 

Lutheran  Church.     See  Church,  Lutheran. 

M 

MACAULAY,  Lord,  his  testimony  in  favour  of 
the  Sabbath,  209,  210,  216,  252,  253,  473. 

Maccabees,  The,  Strict  observance  of  the  Sab 
bath  by  the  Jews  in  the  time  of,  6,  253. 

M'Cheyne,  Rev.  Robert  M.,  476.      „ 

n'Orie",  Dr.  Thomas,  his  Free  Thoughts  on  the 
Celebration  of  the  Funeral  of  Charlotte,  Princess 
of  Wales,  28  ;  his  observations  on  the  bene 
fits  wh  ich  have  resulted  to  Scotland  from  the 
abolition  of  holidays  at  the  Reformation,  31. 
32,  429  ;  his  testimony  to  the  authority  and 
value  of  the  Sabbath,  435,  436,  453,  473. 


M'Fie,  Rev.  "William,  163. 

M'Guire,  Rev.  Robert,  his  controversy  with 
Langley  on  the  Sabbath,  148. 

M'Kenzie,  Forbes,  his  Act,  604. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  197,  225,  265. 

M'Lelland,  Mr.  John,  a  Christian  farmer,  sane- 
tification  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  family  of, 
451. 

M'Naughtun,  Rev.  J.,  169. 

M'Ward,  Robert,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Glas 
gow,  116. 

Madeira,  Disregard  of  the  Sabbath  in,  565. 

Magistrates,  Testimony  of.  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath.  473. 

Majoribanks,  Alexander,  of  that  ilk,  one  of  the 
earliest  Scottish  writers  who  scoffingly  as 
sailed  the  Sabbath,  166,  167. 

Malan,  Dr.  Cesar,  600. 

Malcolm,  John,  minister  of  Perth,  his  Expcti- 
tioii  of  the  Acts,  162. 

Man's  physical  system,  Rest  of  the  Sabbath 
necessary  to  the  wellbeing  of,  173-175; 
every  seventh  day  as  a  day  of  rest  necessary 
to  the  wellbeing  of,  178-183. 

Maresius,  Controversy  between  Voetius  and, 

Marlow,  Isaac,  his  work  in  refutation  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  144. 

Marot,  Clement,  Psalms  of,  236. 

Martyn,  Henry,  226,  476. 

Martyr,  Justin,  wrote  in  defence  of  the  Lord's 
day  against  the  Jews,  8 ;  his  Dialogue  with 
Trypho,  a  Jew,  8,  9,  377  ;  incorrect  interpre 
tation  put  upon  his  sentiments  as  to  the 
Sabbath,  10;  his  testimony  against  the  ob 
servance  of  Saturday,  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
by  Christians,  11,  368,  369,  373,  374 ;  vindi 
cates  the  Christians  from  the  charge  of  prac 
tising  immorality  at  their  meetings  on  the 
Sabbath,  12. 

Martyr,  Peter,  his  sentiments  on  the  Sabbath. 
409,  412. 

Mary,  Queen  of  England,  persecution  of  the 
Protestants  by,  39 ;  good  which  resulted 
from  that  persecution,  39,  40,  53. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  421. 

Mussey,  Dr.,  of  the  Ohio  Medical  College,  180. 

Masters  and  employers  of  workmen,  A  large 
share  of  Sabbath  desecration  to  be  attributed 
to,  574-576. 

Mather,  Dr.  Cotton,  152,  504. 

Mather,  Increase,  father  of  the  preceding,  152. 

May- games,  69,  85. 

Mayhew,  Henry,  replied  to  by  Bouchier  on 
the  Sabbath,  148. 

Maximus,  Bishop  of  Turin,  385. 

Mode,  Joseph,  133. 

Medical  men.     See  Physicians. 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  409;  believed  the  Sabbath 
to  have  been  appointed  by  God  at  the  cre 
ation,  411,  412  ;  held  the  Christian  Sabbath 
to  be  a  Divine  appointment,  417. 

Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis,  374. 

Mellet,  Louis  Victor,  Pastor  of  Yvorne,  600. 

Melville,  Andrew,  Principal  successively  of  the 
Universities  of  Glassow  and  St.  Andrews, 
91,  160,  161,  442. 

Methodists,  442. 


624 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Micklethwaite,  Dr.   Paul,  his  sentiments  on 

the  Sabbath,  85. 

Middleburg,  Revival  of  religion  and  of  Sab 
bath-keeping  in,  91,  92,  100,  101.  See  Teel- 
linck,  William. 

Miller,  James,  Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Uni 
versity  of  Edinburgh,  16S. 

Miller,  Professor  Samuel,  of  America,  154. 

Milner,  Dr.  Isaac,  Dean,  his  sermons  on  the 
Sabbath,  148. 

Milton,  24 ;  held  the  Lord's  day  to  be  merely 
an  ecclesiastical  appointment,  143,  144  ;  his 
elegy  on  his  old  preceptor,  Mr.  Thomas 
Young,  163,  164  ;  his  picture  of  wedded  love, 
22S ;  his  sentiments  on  the  Sabbath  con 
sidered,  470,  471,  475. 

Mind,  Necessity  of  the  Sabbath  to  the,  268. 

Ministers  of  Religion,  acted  the  Miracle  Plays, 
49  ;  wherein  they  may  fail  in  a  due  regard  to 
the  Sabbath,  560. 

Minucius  Felix,  376. 

Missions,  Success  of  Protestant,  264 ;  failure 
of  Romish,  ib.  ;  proofs  from,  of  the  adapta 
tion  of  the  Sabbath  to  every  clime,  501. 

Missionaries,  Testimonies  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  476,  477  ;  success  of,  in  planting 
the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  among  Pagans, 
593-597. 

Mitchell,  Rev.  James,  his  essay  on  the  Sabbath, 
165. 

Mohammedanism,  Friday  the  Sabbath  of,  200, 
263,  554,  564. 

Moncrietf,  Rev.  Alexander,  of  Abernethy,  161. 

MoJitalembert,  M.  de,  his  testimony  in  favour 
of  the  Sabbath,  194,  250  ;  his  efforts  to  cor 
rect  Sabbath  profanation  in  France,  258, 
424  ;  attributes  the  greatness  of  England  to 
its  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  552,  598. 

Moral  Law.    See  Decalogue. 

Morality,  The  Sabbath  conducive  to  the  inter 
ests  of,  194-200,  212,  213,  257,  258;  salutary 
influence  of  preaching  faith  on,  attested  by 
Sir  James  Mackintosh,  197,  265  ;  has  declined 
in  proportion  to  the  perversion  of  the  Sab 
bath,  205,  206  ;  no  morality  where  there  is 
no  Sabbath,  206-20S. 

Moralities.     See  Mysteries. 

Moravian  Missionaries,  262. 

More,  Dr.  Henry,  432. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  maintained  that  the  Sabbath 
is  only  an  ecclesiastical  appointment,  35, 
423. 

Morer,  Rev.  Thomas,  London,  denied  the  obli 
gation  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  on 
Christians,  142,  143,  146. 

Moritz,  Mr ,  563. 

Mormons,  The,  230. 

Morris-dances  and  dancers,  69,  85,  131. 

Morton,  Dr.  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Durham,  his 
Work  on  the  question  of  the  ceremonies,  25, 
27  ;  had  a  share  in  the  preparation  of  the 
Declaration  for  Sports  on  the  Lord's  day 
published  by  James  i  ,  83  ;  his  account  of 
the  origin  of  that  document.,  83.  84. 

Mosaic  Law,  Threefold  distinction  in,  39. 

Mosheim,  Dr.  J.  Lawrence,  his  high  opinion 
of  Perkins'  writings,  65  ;  his  estimate  of  the 
writings  of  Voetius,  97,  98,  111. 


Mousehole,  Fishing  village  of,  237,  238,  244. 

Murray,  Mr.  John,  minister  at  Leith,  after 
wards  at  Dunferm.ine,  26. 

Murray,  Rev.  John,  Morton,  167. 

Mysteries,  Miracle  Plays,  and  Moralities,  in 
troduced  into  the  service  of  the  Cturch,  40 
performed  on  the  Lord's  day,  160. 

N 

NANTES,  Edict  of.    See  French  Protestants. 

Napier,  Right  Hon.  Joseph,  M.P.,  149. 

Naples,  213,  245. 

Natalitia.     See  Christians,  Early. 

Nazarenes,  The,  Sentiments  of,  11. 

Nelson,  Robert,  wrote  against  the  violation  of 
the  Sabbath,  146. 

Netherlands,  The,  Sabbatic  controversy  in, 
90 ;  the  churches  of,  engaged  in  a  fruitless 
struggle  with  the  magistrates  for  the  exclu 
sion  of  Popish  holidays,  ib.  ;  neglect  of  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  in,  90,  91 ;  reli 
gion  revived  in,  by  William  Teellinck,  91 ; 
commencement  of  the  controversy  ou  the 
Sabbath  in  1618  in,  32-94;  the  first  book 
published  against  the  Sabbath  in,  95  ;  third 
Sabbatic  controversy  in,  108 ;  the  fourth. 
Ill ;  accounts  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sab 
bath  in,  in  seventeenth  century,  114,  116. 
See  Holland,  and  Utrecht. 

Netherlands,  States-General  of,  Petition  of  the 
Synod  of  Doit  to,  94. 

Nevins,  Rev.  Dr.  William,  of  America,  155. 

Newcome,  Rev.  Peter,  his  sound  views  on  the 
Sabbath,  146. 

New  England,  Account  of  sectaries  in.  by 
Samuel  Rutherford,  150  ;  churches  in,  adopt 
the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  151, 
152 ;  zeal  for  the  Sabbath  by  the  first  ministers 
of,  152  ;  care  of  the  Puritan  settlers  in.  for  the 
education  of  the  young,  192,  204 ;  state  of, 
towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cer  - 
tury,  described,  224,  225.  Sec  America,  Pil 
grim  Fathers  of. 

Newlyn,  Fishing  village  of,  237,  238. 

New  Testament,  Rhemish,  24.  See  Rheme» 
New  Testament. 

New  Testament,  Tyndale's  version  of,  36. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  a  friend  of  the  SabbatL, 
193,  219,  472,  475. 

Newton,  John,  144,  225. 

New  York,  Sabbath  committee  of,  155. 

Nice,  Council  of,  pronounced  against  kneeling 
in  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day,  398. 

Nicholas,  Pope,  392. 

Nisbet,  Rev.  Alexander,  minister  of  the 
Secession  Church,  Portsburgh,  Edinburgh, 
166. 

Nobility  and  gentry  and  the  Sabbath,  559. 

Noell  (Nowell,  Novvel,  Noel),  Dr.  Alexander, 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  his  Catechism,  42;  his 
fidelity  m  preaching  before  Queen  Elizabeth, 

Noel,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Baptist  W.,  149. 

Nonconformists,  their  high  character  both  in 
England  and  Scotland,  26,  31 ;  their  doc 
trine  as  to  the  Sabbath  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  43  ;  number  of  them  without  the 
pole  of  tli*  Church  in  1592,  59 ;  abounding 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


625 


Sabbath  desecration  preys  on  the  vitals  of 

their  churches,  146.     See  Puritans,  The. 
'Northampton,  New  England,  Origin  of  revival 

in,  in  1734,  153. 
North  brooke,  John,  his  treatise  against  idle 

pastimes  on  the  Sabbath,  56,  57. 
Norway,  Desecration  of  the  Sabbath  in,  567  ; 

Lutheran  Church  in,  ib. 
Nbvatian,  treats  of  the  Sabbatic  institution, 

8,  11. 
Numitianus,   Rutilius,  assails   the  Christian 

Sabbath,  12. 


OCCTTN,  Bernard,  459. 

Ockford,  James,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 

OZcolampadius,  409. 

Ogden,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel,  denied  the  obligation 
of  the  Fourth  Commandment  on  Christians, 
142,  143. 

Oliver,  Rev.  Alexander,  168. 

Ollyffe,  Rev.  John,  his  sound  views  on  the  Sab 
bath,  146. 

Omnibus  drivers,  207. 

Order,  Social,  The  Sabbath  contributes  to 
secure,  250-254. 

Origen,  his  defence  of  Christianity  against 
Celsus,  12,  370,  376,  377,  379,  380,  382,  383. 

Orton,  Rev.  Job,  66,  147. 

Ovid,  his  reprehension  of  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Jews,  3. 

Owen,  Dr.  John,  wrote  on  the  question  of  the 
ceremonies,  24,  26,  28,  66,  81 ;  his  examina 
tion  of  the  arguments  of  the  opponents  of 
the  Sabbath,  113  ;  his  treatise  on  the  Sab 
bath,  145,  153,  164;  his  character,  223,423, 
473,  584. 

Owen,  Robert,  261. 

Oxford,  University  of,  36,  95,  122. 


PAGAN  nations,  Difference  on  the  question  of 
the  Sabbath  between  the  Jews  and,  2-7; 
opposition  of,  to  the  Christian  Sabbath,  7, 
8  ;  traces  of  sacred  days  of  some  sort  among, 
1,  179,  200,  359-364,  554.  See  Missionaries. 

1'aley,  Dr.  William,  his  sentiments  on  the 
Sabbath,  142,  143;  reply  to,  by  Hey  of 
Leeds,  148  ;  his  argument  for  the  existence 
of  a  God  from  the  relation  of  sleep  to  night, 
applied  in  proof  of  the  divine  authority  of 
the  Sabbath,  267  ;  denied  the  institution  of 
the  Sabbath  at  the  creation,  and  dated  its 
institution  at  the  promulgation  of  the  de 
calogue,  278,  382,  480,  48  L  ;  his  argument 
for  the  unity  of  a  God,  479  ;  his  arguments 
against  a  primaeval  Sabbath,  and  that  the 
Sabbath  was  peculiar  to  the  Jews,  exam 
ined,  521-539,  584. 

Palmer,  Herbert,  joint  author  with  Daniel 
Cawdrey  of  f-'abbatum  Redivivum,  139. 

Palmer,  Rev.  Samuel,  147. 

Papacy,  The.     See  Rome,  Church  of. 

Papists,  Many  ecclesiastical  incumbents  were 
so  in  disguise  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza 
beth,  49.  See  Lancashire. 

Parent,  Neglect  and  bad  example  of,  a  caise 


of  Sabbath  desecration,  571,  572 ;  duties  of. 
585. 

Paris,  250  ;  Sabbath  profanation  in,  during 
the  first  French  Revolution,  498, 553  ;  and  ia 
the  present  day,  566 ;  meeting  of  Evangeli 
cal  Alliance  in,  600. 

Paris,  Archbishop  of,  his  efforts  to  correct 
Sabbath  profanation,  i58,  424,  598. 

Paris  garden  in  Southwark,  Barbarous  and 
demoralizing  sports  in,  on  the  Sabbath,  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  50 ;  fatal 
accident  at,  51  ;  these  exhibitions  put  down 
by  James  i.,  ib. 

Parker,  Rev.  Gavin,  his  publication  on  tha 
Sabbath,  166. 

Parker,  Matthew,  Archbishop,  43 ;  his  dis 
regard  of  the  Sabbath,  52 ;  his  severe  treat 
ment  of  the  Puritans,  53. 

Parker,  Robert,  rector,  wrote  on  the  question 
of  the  ceremonies,  24. 

Parkhurst,  John,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  55. 

Parliament,  English,  its  sympathy  with  the 
suffering  Puritans,  23  ;  legislation  of,  in  the 
time  of  James  i ,  in  favour  of  the  Sabbath, 
83. 

Parliament,  Long,  Important  services  it  ren 
dered  to  the  Sabbath,  137,  162  ;  Westminster 
Assembly  called  together  by,  138;  numerous 
treatises  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath  published 
in  consequence  of  the  liberty  granted  by,  ib. 
See  Pocklington,  Dr. 

Parliament  of  Scotland.     See  Scotland. 

Parry,  Rev.  Richard,  defends  the  antiquity  of 
the  Sabbath,  147. 

Paschasius,  John,  his  work  on  the  Sabbath, 
109,  111. 

Pastor,  The  Christian,  188. 

Paton,  J.  N.,  wrote  against  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Patriarchs,  The,  Existence  of  the  Sabbnth 
among,  implied  in  their  division  of  time 
into  weeks,  280,  281 ;  and  in  their  regular 
observance  of  public  worship,  281,  282 ; 
remarkable  instances  of  piety  among,  283 ; 
longevity  of,  283,  284. 

Patrick.  Bishop,  10. 

Paul  in.,  Pope,  422. 

Paxton,  Dr.  George,  473. 

Fearce,  Zachary,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  147. 

Pearl  of  Days,  The,  by  a  female  author,  It'll". 

Pearson,  John,  Bishop  of  Chester,  his  defeuca 
of  the  Sabbath  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Creed, 
140,  431. 

Pedlars,  disposed  of  their  wares  in  the  porches 
of  churches  in  the  time  of  Cranmer  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  51. 

Pegu,  The  natives  of,  359,  362. 

Pembroke,  Maria  Sidney  (sister  to  Sir  Philip 
Sidney),  Countess  of,  58. 

Perkins,  William,  minister  at  Cambridge,  his 
zeal  for  the  Sabbath,  59,  64,  118  ;  his  re 
markable  conversion,  65  ;  European  fame 
of  his  writings,  ib.  ;  his  peaceful  end,  66  ; 
testimony  in  favour  of  his  writings  by  Or 
ton,  66,  69,  70,  77,  98. 

Persecution.     See  Liberty,  True. 

Persians,  The,  The  eighth  day  the  festal  d«ij 
of,  360,  362,  363,  365. 

Persius,  derides  the  Sabbath  of  tha  Je.fi,,  8. 


626 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Perth,  Five  Articles  of,  26,  27,  89,  162,  425. 
Peter,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  397. 
Peters,  Hugh,  91. 

Phelps's  Perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath,  Boston, 
U.S.,  154. 

Philanthropists,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  476-478. 

Philanthropy,  Connexion  between  the  devout 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  and,  511. 

Philosophers,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  472.  473,  475,  476. 

Phoenicians,  The,  359. 

Physicians,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  174,  175,  ISO,  472,  560. 

Pierce,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  28  ;  advo 
cates  recreations  on  the  Sabbath,  127,  128. 

Pierce,  Dr.,  a  Socinian  minister  in  America, 
265. 

Pilgrim  Fathers.  See  America,  Pilgrim  Fa 
thers  of. 

Plato,  extols  festivals  as  the  gift  of  the  gods,  4. 

Plautus,  Play  of,  represented  before  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  King's  College  Church,  Cam 
bridge,  48. 

Plays,  acted  on  the  Sabbath,  50,  62.  See. 
Mysteries,  and  Theatres. 

Pliny,  the  younger,  his  testimony  that  a 
stated  day  was  sacredly  observed  by  the 
Christians,  372-374. 

Pliuner,  Dr.  William  S.,  of  America,  155. 

Plutarch,  his  hostility  to  the  Jewish  religion 
and  Sabbath,  3. 

Pocklington,  Dr.  John,  chaplain  to  Charles 
i.,  his  Sunday  no  Sabbath,  133  ;  this  and 
another  of  his  productions  ordained  by  the 
Long  Parliament  to  be  publicly  burned, 
133,  140. 

Polanus,  Amanclus,  (a  Polaudsdorff,)  Pro 
fessor  at  Basle,  100. 

Police,  Metropolitan,  207 ;  violation  of  the 
Sabbath  by,  559. 

Pollock,  J.  M.,  168. 

Pollok,  Robert,  503. 

Polyander,  John,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
University  of  Leyden,  95. 

Polynesia,  Change  produced  by  missionary 
labours  in,  237,  258,  596,  597  ;  'heathen  con 
dition  of,  263. 

Poole,  Matthew,  author  of  the  Synopsis,  176. 

Pope,  The,  his  usurped  authority  to  suspend 
or  abrogate  Divine  laws,  488,  489. 

Popery,  Vestments  of,  24 ;  its  corrupting 
influence  on  the  family  institution,  230, 
231  ;  blights  a  spirit  of  improvement  and 
useful  enterprise,  244-247 ;  fulfilment  of 
Scripture  predictions  in,  548,  554.  See 
Rome,  Church  of. 

I'opham,  Sir  John,  Lord  Chief-Justice  of  Eng 
land,  74,  75,  79,  80. 

Porter,  Edm.,  B.D.,  held  the  opinion  that 
every  day  is  alike,  142,  165. 

Portftu's,  Beilby,  Bishop  of  London,  the  Sab 
bath  defended  iu  his  writings,  147,  582. 

Portugal,  245. 

Post-  Office,  Servants  in,  207 ;  desecration  of 
the  Sabbath  in,  559. 

Pott,  Joseph  Holden,  Archdeacon,  The  Sab 
bath  defended  in  I'm  writings,  147. 


Poverty,  Prevalence  of,  wheie  the  Sablath  Is 
disregarded,  213,  214,  243. 

Powell,  Rev.  Baden,  Obligation  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment  on  Christians  denied  by, 
142,  143;  replied  to  by  a  writer  in  the 
London  Quarterly  Review,  148. 

Praise,  324,  353,  354. 

Prayer,  Tendency  of,  to  produce  mental  elo- 
vation,  189,  324  ;  its  influence  on  the  sauc- 
tiflcation  of  the  Sabbath,  589-591. 

Prayer-meeting  held  in  London  by  various 
Puritan  ministers,  91.  92. 

Preaching  of  the  Word,  a  Divine  ordinance, 
325.  See  Pulpit,  The  Christian. 

Precisians.    See  Puritans. 

Predictions  as  to  the  observance  of  the  Sab 
bath  under  Christianity,  546-554. 

Presbytery,  Smectyninuus,  a  work  on,  108. 

Press,  The,  Liberty  of,  abridged  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  61 ;  corrupting  opinions 
propagated  through,  a  cause  of  Sabbath 
desecration,  576-580  ;  .ts  power,  582. 

Prideaux,  Humphrey,  Dean,  his  testimony 
to  the  necessity  of  the  Sabbath,  207,  208, 
473. 

Prideaux,  Dr.  John,  Rector  and  Professor  of 
Theology,  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  after 
wards  Bishop  of  Worcester,  106.  109  ;  his 
Latin  oration,  in  which  he  assailed  the  Sab 
batic  institution,  translated  into  English  by 
Dr.  Heylyn,  120,  121  ;  the  oration  answered 
by  Dr.  Twisse,  121,  137. 

Priestley,  Dr.  Joseph,  supports  the  orthodox 
opinion  as  to  the  Sabbath,  147  ;  Unitarian- 
ism  of,  264. 

Primerose,  Mr.  Gilbert,  minister  of  a  French 
congregation  in  London,  134 ;  chaplain  to 
Charles  r.,  136. 

Primerose,  David,  minister  of  the  Protestant 
Church  at  Rouen,  his  work  on  the  Sabbath, 
109,  134;  its  anti-Sabbatic  character,  134. 
137. 

Princeton  Rpview,  155. 

Pritchard,  George,  594. 

Prynne,  William,  Savage  treatment  of,  125  > 
his  tracts  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath,  135. 

Pulpit,  The  Christian,  its  adaptation  to  the 
constitution  and  improvement  of  the  human 
mind,  186,  187,  202 ;  the  light  of,  well  nigh 
quenched  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  191,  208. 
See  Preaching  of  the  Word ;  and  Julian,  the 
Apostate. 

!    Puritans,  The,  Acts  and  measures  of  Queen 
j        Elizabeth  against,    21 ;    millenary  petition 
presented  by,  to  James  i.,  21,  22,  59  (see 
James  vi.  of  Scotland)  ;  statesmen  and  ec 
clesiastics  who  sympathized  with,  23  ;   de 
prived  of  the  liberty  of  the  press.  61  ;  had  a 
printing  press  abroad,  ib.;  the  religious  ob 
servance  of   the   Sabbath    becomes  a  dis- 
i       tinguishing  mark  of,  62  ;  charged  with  up- 
I       holding  the  Sabbath  at  the  expense  of  the 
j       holidays,  76  ;  misrepresentation  of  their  sen 
timents  as  to  the  Sabbath,  76-78  ;  not  singu 
lar  in  their  sentiments  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
77,  118;  enactment  against,  in  James  i.'s 
Declaration  for  Sports  on  the  Lord's  day,  85, 
86,  120,  126;  a-e  preached  against  at  the 


GENERAL    INDEX, 


627 


Court  of  Charles  i. ,  ±30 ;  all  in  earnest  about 
religion  so  called  in  reign  of  Charles  i.,  131, 
139  ;  distinguished  for  religion  and  morality, 
2*04,  206,  219  ;  not  gloomy  men,  223,  264, 265, 
400,  44-2  ;  against  holidays,  468,  469  ;  their 
sauctiiication  of  the  Sabbath,  448,  449,  503, 
504. 

Puritan  ministers,  hard  treatment  of,  in  the 
rsign  ?f  Queen  Elizabeth,  44,  47,  52,  54,  59  ; 
good  accomplished  by,  as  chaplains  and 
tutors  in  private  families,  55  ;  number  of, 
within  the  Church  in  1603,  59  ;  notes  of  their 
sermons  taken  by  zealous  hearers  widely 
circulated  in  MS.  ,  64,  65 ;  sixty  suspended 
in  15S3,  66  ;  their  sufferings  for  refusing  to 
read  from  the  pulpit  the  Second  Declaration 
of  Sports,  129,  130. 

Puritanism.  Triumph  of,  in  England.  119, 
123. 

Puritans,  who  first  settled  in  America.  See 
America,  Pilgrim  Fathers  of. 

Pyott,  Samuel,  168. 


QUAKERS,  Persecution  of,  under  the  reign  of 
James  n.,  22,  23;  their  number  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  554. 

Quintin,  John,  journeyman  printer,  Ipswich, 
167. 


RAINOLDS.  Dr.  John,  Professor,  Oxford,  the 
originator  of  our  vernacular  version  of  the 
Scriptures,  82  ;  his  complaint  of  the  profa 
nation  of  the  Sabbath  to  James  i.,  82,  95. 

Rank,  Men  of,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  473,  474. 

Randolph,  Thomas,  English  ambassador  at 
the  Scottish  Court,  463,  464. 

Redemption,  Work  of,  339  ;  commemorated  in 
heaven,  350,  351. 

Reformation,  The,  Effects  of,  191  ;  two  eccle 
siastical  parties  since,  who  have  taken  dif 
ferent  views  as  to  the  Sabbath,  206  ;  con 
nexion  of  pure  religion  with  the  doc 
trines  of,  266  ;  originated  in  the  reading  of 
the  Bible,  582  ;  promoted  by  the  writings  of 
the  Reformers,  583. 

Reformed  Church.     See  Church,  Reformed. 

Reformers  of  the  16th  century,  The,  No  full 
exposition  of  Sabbatic  doctrine  to  be 
found  in  the  writings  of,  33  ;  early  justice 
done  to  the  Sabbath  by  the  Scottish,  ib., 
219  ;  not  gloomy  men,  223  ;  regarded  the 
Lord's  day  as  reasonable,  useful,  and  indis 
pensable,  406-408  ;  and  strictly  observed  it, 
408-411 ;  believed  the  Sabbath  to  have  been 
appointed  at  the  creation  for  all  time,  411, 
412  ;  their  retention  of  the  Sabbath,  while 
they  rejected  holidays,  an  argument  that 
they  believed  in  its  divine  authority,  413- 
415  ;  direct  references  by,  to  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  which  prove  that  they  held  its 
Divine  authority,  415-422 ;  the  controversy 
to  be  decided  not  by  their  sentiments,  but 
by  the  Word  of  God,  455;  their  circum 
stances  to  be  weighed  in  estimating  their 
judgment  and  statements  on  this*  question, 


i  457,  464-466 ;  their  sentiments  regarding  it 
have  not  been  fairly  represented,  46ft-462  ; 
allowing  that  they  erred  to  some  extent  as  to 
the  Sabbath,  still  to  be  ranked  among  its 
friends,  467-469. 

i  Reiehel,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  P.,  142,  148,  149. 
'  Religion,  the  Sabbath  necessary  to  its  pros 
perity  and  even  preservation  in  the  world, 
200-208,  212 ;  pure  religion  essential  to 
social  progress,  261-266 ;  injurious  effects  of 
the/ mere  absence  of,  from  literary  publica 
tions,  578,  579. 

!    Rennison,  Rev.  Alexander,  168. 
!    Resurrection  of  Christ,  308. 
i    Retributions  still  for  violations  of  the  Sabbath, 

345. 
i    Revival  of  Religion    in  Northampton,    New 

England,  in  1734,  Origin  of,  153. 
I    Revolution  of  1688,  23. 

Reynolds,  Dr.  Edward,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
428. 

Rhemes  New  Testament,  its  false  renderings 
and  sophistical  notes,  62,  63. 

Richardson,  Sir  Thomas,  Lord  Chief-Justice, 
issues  an  order  for  suppression  of  ales  and 
revels  on  the  Sabbath,  in  Somersetshire, 
127  ;  enjoined  by  the  Council  to  revoke  the 
order,  ib. 

Riculphus,  Bishop,  393. 

Ridgley,  Dr.  Thomas,  147. 

Ridley,  Nicholas,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  39. 

Rites.    See  Ceremonies. 

Rivet,  Andrew,  Professor  of  Theology  in  ths 
University  of  Leyden,  75,  95  ;  replied  to 
Gomar's  Investigation  of  the  Sabbath,  103, 
104 ;  is  answered  by  Gomar  in  a  Defence  of 
the  Investigation,  105  ;  his  rejoinder,  105- 
107 ;  takes  low  ground  on  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment  and  the  Lord's  day,  106  ;  evil 
tendency  of  his  doctrine  on  this  head,  ib. 

Robartes,  Humphrey,  his  work  on  the  Sab 
bath,  57. 

Robinson,  Dr. ,  Archdeacon  of  Gloucester,  de 
fends  recreations  on  the  Lord's  day,  121,  122. 

Robinson,  Dr.  Edward,  his  respect  for  the 
Sabbath  in  his  travels  in  the  East,  588. 

Robinson,  John,  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
did  not  differ  in  judgment,  though  in  prac 
tice,  from  the  Belgic  Churches  in  regard  to 
the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  90-93  ;  he 
and  his  congregation  resolved  to  leave  Hol 
land  because  the  Sabbath  was  there  practi 
cally  disregarded,  91,  504 ;  maintained  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath,  106,  425. 

Rochester,  Earl  of,  570. 

Rogers,  Henry,  his  opposition  to  the  opening 
of  places  of  public  amusement  on  the  Sab 
bath,  149,  224,  472,  476. 

Rogers,  John,  the  proto-martyr,  39. 

Rogers,  Thomas,  minister  at  Horningsheath, 
in  Suffolk,  his  sentiments  on  the  Sabbath, 
59  ;  his  hostility  to  Dr.  Bownd's  Treatise  on 
the  Sabbath,  74,  75,  445 ;  writes  against  it, 
76;  his  misrepresentation  of  the  doctrine 
taught  by  Bownd,  76-78;  is  replied  to  by 
Dr.  Twisse,  76-79,  81. 

Romans,  The  old,  punished  the  Christians 
for  their  faithful  observance  of  the  Sabbath. 


628 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


7;  their  religion  failed  to  purify  and  to 
humanize,  229,  262,  363,  365. 

Roman  Empire,  The  Christian  religion  be 
comes  a  law  of  the,  7. 

Roman  Week  (old)  consisted  of  eight  days, 
360. 

Roman  Writers,  their  hostility  to  the  Sabbath 
of  the  Jews,  3. 

Rome,  Church  of,  11,  14 ;  always  the  same, 
20  ;  her  boasted  unity,  34 ;  comedies  per 
formed  on  the  Lord's  day,  a  custom  derived 
from,  160  ;  the  Sabbath  perverted  by,  191 ; 
debasing  influence  of  her  holidays,  205,  206, 
457-460,  492 ;  has  signally  failed  in  her 
missions,  264.  See  Popery;  and  Trent, 
Council  of. 

Rome,  City  of,  its  Pauperism,  213. 

Roman  Catholic  countries,  Disregard  of  the 
Sabbath  in,  564-566  ;  this  attributable  in  a 
great  measure  to  the  priesthood,  570. 

Romaine,  William,  Sanctification  of  the  Sab 
bath  by  the  converts  of,  452. 

Rotterdam,  Synod  held  at,  approve  of  Teel- 
linck's  treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  95. 

Rudcl  Anthony,  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  23. 

Rudrliman,  Thomas,  his  sanctiflcation  of  the 
Sabbath,  449. 

Rudyerd,  Sir  Ben,].,  denounced  in  Parliament 
Laud's  persecuting,  atiti-Sabbatic  policy, 
137. 

Rufinus,  of  Aquileia,  370. 

Russell,  Francis,  writes  against  the  Sabbath, 
167. 

Russia,  256 ;  Emperor  of,  604.  See  Church, 
Greek. 

Rutherford,  Samuel,  35  ;  his  letters  translated 
into  Dutch  by  Koelman,  117 ;  entered  the 
lists  with  Saltmarsh,  162,  428,  476.  See  New 
England. 

S 

SABBATH,  Advantages  of ;  its  physical  and  in 
tellectual  adaptations,  173-193 ;  its  moral 
and  religious  influence,  194-208 :  its  econo 
mical  bearings,  209-216  ;  its  connexion  with 
personal  prosperity,  217-227  ;  its  domestic 
benefits,  228-241 ;  its  advantages  to  nations, 
242-266. 

Sabbath,  Change  of,  from  the  seventh  to  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  63,  64,  170,  171,  301- 
316,  369,  482,  486,  487. 

Sabbath,  Controversies  and  literature  respect 
ing;  Pagans  against  Jews — both  against 
Christians,  2-13  ;  holidays,  13-32 ;  Sabbatic 
controversies  in  England,  32-90 ;  in  the 
Netherlands,  90-117 ;  in  England  continued, 
118-149 ;  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
149-157 ;  in  Scotland,  157-169 ;  summary  of 
opinions  as  to  the  Sabbath,  170-172. 

Sabbath,  defended,  456;  alleged  anti-Sabba- 
tism  of  the  Reformers,  456-469;  Sabbatic 
sentiments  of  Milton  and  other  eminent 
men,  470-4^8  ;  Sabbath  theories  tried  by  the 
principles  of  the  Divine  government,  479- 
490 ;  by  tVeir  tendencies  and  results,  491- 
513 ;  by  the  doctrine  and  law  of  revelation, 
514-545  ;  by  divine  predictions,  546-555. 

Sabbath,  Desecration  of,  Efforts  against,  in  the 


nineteenth  century,  147,  148 ;  influences 
which  have  contributed  in  Scotland  to,  158; 
Acts  passed  in  the  Parliament  of  Scotland 
against,  158,  159;  connexion  of  Divine  judg 
ments  with,  400,  401 ;  nature  of,  556-558 ; 
its  desecration  at  home,  558-563  ;  and  abroad, 
563-568 ;  causes  of,  568-580 ;  remedies  for, 
580-592. 

Sabbath,  Divine  authority  of,  274-316. 

Sabbath,  Divine  estimate  of  the  importance 
of,  337-348. 

Sabbath,  Duties  of,  317-336. 

Sabbath,  in  heaven,  349-358. 

Sabbath,  in  history,  359-455;  traces  of  sep 
tenary  institutions  among  Pagan  nations, 
359-367  ;  the  Sabbath  in  the  first  three  cen 
turies,  368-381 ;  in  centuries  iv.-xv.,  381-405  ; 
at  the  Reformation,  405-424 ;  after  the  Refor 
mation,  424-455. 

Sabbath,  the  opinion  that  it  is  ceremonial  and 
Jewish,  derogatory  to  the  Ruler  of  the  world, 
482;  contrary  to  his  benevolence,  483,  491. 
492. 

Sabbath,  the  opinion  that  every  day  is  alike 
sacred,  derogatory  to  the  government  of 
God,  489 ;  its  evil  tendencies  and.  results, 
491,  492,  539  ;  held  by  few,  554. 

Sabbath,  the  opinion  that  under  Christianity 
there  is  no  authorized  day  of  rest  and  wor 
ship,  derogatory  to  the  Ruler  of  the  world, 
482;  contrary  to  his  benevolence,  483;  do- 
tracts  from  the  law  of  God,  484-486. 

Sabbath,  Opinion  that  there  shoiild  be  no, 
evil  tendencies  and  results  of,  538,  539. 

Sabbath,  Personal  testimonies  to  the,  430-436. 

Sabbath,  Practical  measures  for  promoting 
the  observance  of  the ;  civil  enactments, 
436-438  ;  teachings  of  ecclesiastical  councils 
as  to,  438-445. 

Sabbath,  primaeval  and  patriarchal,  writers 
by  whom  it  has  been  rejected,  143,  146, 
170  ;  held  by  the  Fathers  of  the  first  cen 
turies  of  the  Church,  383  ;  the  denial  of, 
derogatory  to  God  as  the  Ruler  of  the 
world,  482  ;  contrary  to  his  benevolence, 
483  ;  is  one  of  the  main  pillars  of  the  insti 
tution,  493,  494  :  attempt  to  set  aside  the 
idea  of,  by  the  notion  that  the  mention  of 
it  in  Genesis  antedates  the  institution  2500 
years,  considered,  517,  518 ;  Paley's  argu 
ment  against,  521-539  ;  incidental  reference 
in  various  parts  of  Scripture  to,  527-529, 
540,  541. 

Sabbath,  Prize  Essays  on.    See  Essays. 

Sabbath,  Progress  and  prospects  of  the  cause 
of  the,  592-605. 

Sabbath,  Sanctification  of,  Teaching  of  the 
Church  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixteenth 
century  as  to,  387-390 ;  examples  of  its 
Sanctification  in  families,  445-455. 

Sabbath,  The  seventh  day  or  Saturday  Sab 
bath,  Observance  of,  gains  ground  among 
Christians  in  the  early  ages,  especially  in 
the  East,  11,  12  ;  unchangeable  obligation 
of,  held  by  some,  but  not  many,  60,  554  ; 
authors  by  whom  this  opinion  has  been 
maintained,  88,  122,  139,  142 ;  authors  who 
have  written  in  its  refutation,  144,  14& 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


629 


168 ;  the  obligation  of,  declaratively  set 
aside  303  307,  369  ;  the  Fathers  of  the  first 
three  centuries  believed  that  it  was  so, 
877 ;  and  the  Christian  Church  from  the 
fourth  to  the  sixteenth  century,  383-387 ; 
objection  to,  486,  487,  489,  490,  492,  493 ; 
philological  objection  of  the  friends  of, 
against  the  authority  of  the  Lord's  day, 
531-533. 

8abbath-bre.aker,  The  punishment  of,  by 
death,  obligatory  only  under  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  343,  535. 

Sabbatarians,  or  those  who  hold  the  continued 
obligation  of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath.  See 
Sabbath,  The  seventh  day  or  Saturday  Sab 
bath. 

Saeco,  Reinerus,  an  apostate  from  the  Wal- 
denses.  his  account  of  their  opinions,  16. 

Saints,  The  great  number  of,  commemorated   | 
by  holidays,  14. 

Saints'  Days.     See  Holidays. 

Sailer,  William,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 

Saltmarsh,  John,  held  that  every  day  is  alike, 
142  ;  answered  by  Samuel  Rutherford,  162. 

Sampson,  Dr.  Thomas,  his  sentiments  on  the 
Sabbath,  43. 

Sanderson,  Dr.  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
his  Sovereign  Antidote  against  Sabbatarian 
Errors,  in  which  he  defends  recreations  on 
the  Lord's  day,  134 ;  regards  the  Fourth 
Commandment  »as  a  Jewish  and  temporary 
ordinance,  136. 

Saracens,  The.  359. 

Sardica,  Council  of,  3G1. 

Saturnalia,  The,  361,  363. 

Saxony,  Chamber  of  Deputies  in,  599. 

Saxony,  Confession  of,  its  doctrine  as  to  the 
Sabbath,  406,  411,  416. 

Scaliger,  Joseph  Justus,  Professor  of  Belles 
Lettres  at  Leyden,  100,  364. 

Schmucker,  Dr.  S.  S.,  of  America,  157. 

Schools,  Parish,  192;  Sabbath,  187,  220. 

Sehotanus,  Christian,  Professor  of  Greek  and 
Church  History  in  the  University  of  Frane- 
ker,  107. 

Science  and  arts,  The  expedient  of  devoting 
the  Sabbath  to  the  study  of,  499-502. 

Scientific  men  and  the  Sabbath,  561. 

Scoresby,  Captain  (Rev.  Dr.  Win.),  his  testi 
mony  to  the  connexion  between  the  observ 
ance'  of  the  Sabbath  and  secular  success, 
*51,  552. 

Scot,  William,  minister  of  Cupar,  in  Fife,  26. 

Scott,  Dr.  John,  432. 

Scott,  R«v.  Thomas,  473. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter ;  animadversions  on  his 
Talcs  of  My  Landlord,  453,  454  ;  his  testi 
mony  in  favour  of  the  Sab. bath,  474,  475. 

Scotland,  Holidays  abolished  in,  at  the  Re 
formation,  18,  413,  46S  ;  introduction  of 
prelacy  and  holidays  into,  22,  26  ;  the  claims 
of  the  Sabbath  more  fully  recognised  in, 
than  in  any  other  Protestant  land,  32,  33  ; 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of,  on  the  Sab 
bath,  the  same  from  the  Reformation  to  the 
present  time,  157 ;  influences  by  which 
Sabbath  obsarvances  in,  have  been  impaired, 


158  ;  Acts  for  the  protection  of  the  Sabbath 
passed  in  Parliament  and  ecelesiasticaJ 
courts  of,  158-160  ;  ministers  of  the  Church 
in,  have  contributed  the  most  to  make  it  a 
Sabbath-keeping  country,  160,  161  ;  its  in 
fluence  on  the  summoning  of  the  Long  Par 
liament,  162  ;  writers  in  defence  of  the  Sab 
bath  in,  162-168,  176 ;  strength  of  domestic 
attachments  in,  235,  241 ;  prevailing  tran 
quillity  in,  owing  to  the  Sabbath,  250,  451, 
Sabbath  in,  from  first  Reformation  till  aftc-I 
the  Revolution,  504-507. 

Seceders  in  Scotland,  204;  sanctification  cA 
the  Sabbath  by,  454. 

Seeker,  Thomas,  Archbishop,  147.  • 

Sedulius,  Ccelius,  Scotus,  385. 

Selden,  John,  his  sentiments  on  the  Sabbath, 
470,  471. 

Seneca,  vilifies  the  Sabbath  of  the  Jews,  3  ; 
yet  applauds  the  holidays  of  heathendom, 
4,  8. 

Senegambia,  The  inhabitants  of,  360,  362 

Septenary  number,  Foundation  of  the  respect 
anciently  shown  for,  279,  280,  365-367. 

Sessions,  Kirk,  their  efforts  against  Sabbath 
desecration,  159,  160. 

Shaftesbury,  Earl  of,  607. 

Shakspere,  49,  249,  592. 

Sharp,  John,  Archbishop,  his  sound  views  on 
the  Sabbath,  146. 

Shenston,  J.  B.,  perpetuity  of  the  seventh- 
day  Sabbath  held  by,  142. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  minister  of  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  his  work  in  defence  of  the 
Sabbath,  139,  150;  his  Theses  Sabbaticce, 
151. 

Sherman,  Rev.  James,  his  work  on  the  Sab 
bath.  147. 

Shore,  Sir  John,  afterwards  Lord  Teignmouth, 
his  testimony  to  the  authority  and  value  of 
the  Sabbath,  434,  435. 

Simeon,  Rev.  Charles,  of  Cambridge,  470 

Sinclair,  Catherine,  168. 

Sinclair,  Sir  John,  242,  475. 

Slave  Colonies,  23*0. 

Slavonians,  The  Pagan,  359. 

Small,  J.,  a  Presbyter  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  Scotland,  his  tract  on  the  Sabbath,  164, 
165. 

Smith,  Dr.  Adam,  taught  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  in  his  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments, 
198;  cause  assigned  by,  for  the  superior 
morality  of  small  religious  sects,  199  ;  his 
testimony  to  the  divine  authority  and  value 
of  the  Sabbath,  242,  432,  433,  475. 

Smith,  Dr.  Gilbert,  of  New  York,  180. 

Smith,  Mr.  Hugh,  59  ;  his  sermon  before  the 
University  of  Cambridge  against  the  profana 
tion  of  the  Sabbath,  61,  62. 

Smith,  John,  146. 

Smith,  Nicholas,  Vicar  of  Braughing,  146. 

Smith,  Dr.  Pye,  6,  473,  520. 

Smith,  Dr.  Southwood,  177. 

Social  prosperity,  Pure  religion  essential  to, 
261-266. 

Social  Science  Congress  in  Glasgow,  255. 

Society  in  London  for  promoting  the  ol 
ance  of  the  Lord's  day,  429,  430,  443. 


630 


GENERAI   INDEX. 


Societies,  Various,  for  promoting  the  due  ob 
servance  of  the  Lord's  day,  443.  444. 

Society  Islar  ds,  Huahine,  cue  of,  361,  362. 

Socinianism,  554. 

Socinians,  114. 

Socrates,  the  historian,  11 ;  his  opposition  to 
holidays,  15. 

Somersetshire,  Violation  of  the  Sabbath  in, 
128,  127 ;  endeavours  of  the  justices  of 
the  peace  in,  for  the  suppression  of  ales  on 
the  Lord's  day,  127,  128. 

Somerville,  Dr.  Andrew,  his  tract  on  the  Sab 
bath,  167. 

South  Sea  Islands,  360,  362. 

Southey,  Robert,  225. 

Sozomen,  the  historian,  11. 

Spain,  its  heavy  criminal  calendar,  52 ;  its 
poverty,  214  ;  no  holy  Sabbath  in,  231,  565  ; 
disorganized  state  of  the  family  institution 
in,  231,  232  ;  annual  loss  to,  by  ker  holidays, 
245  ;  social  disorder  of,  250,  253,  258. 

Spanheim.  Frederick,  the  younger,  Professor 
of  Theology  at  Leyden,  115,  116. 

Spencer,  John,  denied  the  obligation  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment  on  Christians,  142, 
143. 

Spittlehouse,  J.,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 

Sports  on  the  Lord's  Day,  The  Declaration  for, 
published  by  James  i.,  in  1618,  76,  83; 
origin  of,  83,  84 ;  abstract  of,  84-86 ;  un 
paralleled  atrocity  of  this  measure,  86,  87 ; 
alarm  and  sorrow  it  produced,  87  ;  its  failure, 
87,  88. 

Sports  on  the  Lord's  Day,  Second  Declaration  of, 
118-120,  128  ;  800  ministers  refuse  to  read  it 
from  the  pulpit,  129  ;  their  sufferings  in  con 
sequence,  ib.;  injury  it  inflicted  on  religion 
and  morality,  130,  131,  498, 503 ;  publications 
in  defence  of,  131-135  ;  the  opponents  of,  de 
prived  of  liberty  to  express  or  publish  their 
sentiments,  135,  141,  424,  437,  445,  489, 
588. 

Spotswood,  John,  minister  of  Calder,  after 
wards  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  27, 
159. 

Sprague,  Dr.  William  B.,  474. 

Spring,  Dr.  Gardiner,  of  America,  155. 

Sprint,  Dr.  John,  Dean  of  Bristol,  81. 

Sprint,  Mr.  John,  a  Puritan,  and  minister  at 
Thornbury,  in  Gloucestershire,  his  work  on 
the  Sabbath  described,  81,  82,  135. 

Stael,  Madame  de,  234. 

Stanley,  Lord,  444. 

Star  Chamber,  46,  88,  138. 

Stark,  Dr.  James,  of  Dennyloanhead,  429. 

State,  The,  Difference  of  sentiment  as  to  how 
the  Sabbath  ought  to  be  dealt  with  by,  171 ; 
has  no  power  of  enacting  a  weekly  holiday, 
487-489,  494. 

Statesmen,  Testimony  of,  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  473. 

StefTe,  John,  the  first  who  enlarged  on  the 
policy  of  a  weekly  day  of  rest  and  worship, 

Stennets,  The,  Edward,  Joseph,  and  Samuel, 
held  the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  seventh- 
day  Sabbath,  142. 


Steven,  Rev.  Dr.  William,  his  History  of  fito 
Scotch  Church,  Rotterdam,  92,  116,  117. 

Stevens,  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  Bacon,  of  America. 
154. 

Stewart,  Professor  Dugald,  476. 

Stewart,  Rev.  James  G. ,  168. 

Stillingfleet,  Edward,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
473. 

Stockwood,  John,  schoolmaster  of  Tunbridge, 
60,  61. 

Stokesley,  John,  Bishop  of  London,  his  senti 
ments  on  the  Sabbath,  37. 

Stone,  Dr.  John  S.,  of  America,  154. 

Stopford,  Dr.  Edward,  Archdeacon  of  Armagh, 


bath, 


his  reply  to  Archbishop  Wiiately  on  the  Sab- 


Strabo,  his  hostility  to  the  Jewish  religion 
and  Sabbath,  3. 

Strafford,  Lord,  136. 

Strasburg,  The  Sabbath  the  only  holiday  ob 
served  in,  IS,  414,  468. 

Strikes,  221. 

Strong,  Dr.  Nathan,  minister  in  Hartford,  Con 
necticut,  America,  his  sermons  on  the  Sab 
bath,  153. 

Struthers,  Rev.  Dr.  Gavin,  166. 

Struthers,  John,  his  Poor  Man's  Sabbath,  166, 

Stuart,  John,  of  Ayr,  160. 

Stuttgard  Conference  of  1850,  590,  591. 

Subscription  of  the  clergy,  Change  in  the 
articles  they  were  required  to  subscribe  i» 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  66. 

Sunday  newspaper,  149. 

Swan,  Mr.,  211. 

Sweden,  256;  disregard  of  the  Sabbath  and 
prevalent  intemperance  in,  512,  513,  507. 

Switzerland,  213 ;  its  Protestant  cantons  su 
perior  to  its  Roman  Catholic  in  industry. 
246  ;  Sabbath  in,  600,  601. 

Sylvius,  Pastor  at  Amsterdam,  102. 

Symons,  Jeylinger,  The  Sabbath  defended  in 
his  writings,  147. 


TABOKITES,  The,  386. 

Tacitus,  his  hostility  to  the  Jewish  religion, 
3  ;  instance  in  which  he  does  it  justice,  5,  8. 

Tambookies,  an  African  tribe,  262. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  his  testimony  in  favour  of  the 
Sabbath,  173,  472. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  Bishop,  24;  regarded  the 
Fourth  Commandment  as  a  Jewish  and  tem 
porary  ordinance,  136,  142,  143,  337. 

Taylor,  Dr.  John,  the  Sabbath  defended  in  his 
writings,  147. 

Taylor,  John,  Unitarian  minister,  Glasgow, 
writes  against  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Taylor,  W.  B.,  of  America,  155. 

Teellinck,  or  Teelling,  William,  minister  of 
the  Reformed  Church  in  Middleburgh,  hia 
successful  endeavours  in  promoting  the  sanc- 
tification  of  the  Sabbath  in  Zealand,  91,  425  ; 
particulars  of  his  history,  91 -P3  ;  his  treatise 
on  the  Sabbat?i,  94-96,  98;  his  Necessary 
Demonstration  c^ncei-ning  the  Present  AJftii:ted 
Staie  of  God's  People,  <JS,  99 :  his  death,  99, 
101,  761. 

Teignmouth,  Lord.    See  Shore,  Sir  Joha. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


631 


TsrtulHan,  writes  in  defence  of  the  Lord's  day 
against  the  Jews,  8,  9  ;  incorrect  interpreta 
tion  put  upon  his  sentiments  as  to  the  Sab 
bath,  10 ;  his  testimony  against  the  obser 
vance  of  Saturday,  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  by 
Christians,  11 ;  vindicates  the  Christians 
from  the  charge  of  practising  immorality  at 
their  meetings  on  the  Sabbath,  12,  363  ;  his 
testimony  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
sacredly  observed  by  the  Christians,  374- 
381,  383. 

Testament,  Old,  inspired  equally  with  the  New, 
515,  516. 

Thacker,  Mr.  Elias,  executed  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  for  circulating  a  work 
against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  57,  75. 

Theatres,  leave  granted  to  magistrates  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  to  raze  them  to  the  ground, 
44,  50  ;  a  regular  theatre  established  under 
her  authority,  51. 

Theatrical  performances,  The  Sabbath  dese 
crated  by,  before  the  Court  of  Charles  i., 
130,  131 ;  ecclesiastical  measures  against,  on 
the  Sabbath,  392,  395.  See  Plays. 

Theodore,  of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury  CA.D.  668),  402. 

Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyrus  (A.D.  429),  383,  384. 

Theodulph,  Bishop  of  Orleans  (A.D.  794),  394. 

Theophilus,  Bishop  of  Antioch  (A.D.  181),  374. 

Theophylact,  Archbishop  of  Acridia (A. D.  1077), 


Thomas,  William,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  145. 

Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  St.  George's  Church, 
Edinburgh,  28. 

Thomson,  Dr.  Andrew,  of  Broughton  Place 
Church,  Edinburgh,  167,  169. 

Thomson,  Rev.  John,  Leith,  hia  publications 
on  the  Sabbath,  167. 

Thorn,  William,  his  treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  148. 

Thysius,  Antonius,  Professor  of  Divinity  in 
the  University  of  Leyden,  94 ;  his  sentiments 
on  the  Sabbath,  95. 

Tillain,  Thomas,  held  the  perpetuity  of  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath,  142,  144. 

Tillotson,  John,  Archbishop,  473. 

Time,  Duty  of  redeeming,  332,  333. 

Titus,  the  Roman  Emperor,  his  assaults  on 
Jerusalem  made  on  Sunday,  371. 

Tolet,  Cardinal,  maintained  that  the  Sabbath 
is  merely  an  ecclesiastical  appointment,  35, 
423. 

Tonstall,  Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  London,  his  sen 
timents  on  the  Sabbath,  37. 

Traders  and  the  Sabbath,  501. 

Trajan,  The  Emperor,  372. 

Traske,  John,  maintained  the  obligation  of 
the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  88 ;  sentence 
passed  upon  him  by  the  Star  Chamber,  ib. ; 
his  recantation,  89,  122,  142. 

Traske,  Mrs.,  wife  of  the  preceding,  impri 
soned  fifteen  years  for  holding  the  same 
opinions  as  her  husband,  88. 

Travers,  Walter,  Provost  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  35 ;  held  the  moral  and  perpetual 
obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  118. 

Trefiry,  Richard,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath.  148. 


Treleatius,  Lucas,  his  sentiments  on  the  Sab. 
bath,  93. 

Trent,  Council  of,  Abuses  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  stereotyped  by,  20 ;  its  doctrine  as 
to  the  Sabbath,  422,  423. 

Trosse,  George,  of  Exeter,  his  treatise  in  de 
fence  of  the  Lord's  day,  144. 

Trullo,  Council  in,  391. 

Trypho,  a  Jew,  Justin  Martyr's  Dialogue 
with,  8,  377  ;  uncertain  whether  a  real  or 
fictitious  person,  8. 

Twisse,  Dr.  William,  53,  74,  75  ;  his  answer  to 
Thomas  Rogers'  attack  upon  Bownd's  work 
on  the  Sabbath,  76-79,  81 ;  refused  to  read 
and  condemned  from  the  pulpit  James  i.'s 
Declaration  for  Sports  on  the  Lord's  day, 
87 ;  his  animadversions  on  the  evil  tendency 
of  Dr.  Rivet's  doctrine  on  the  Sj^bath, 
106  ;  answers  Dr.  Prideaux's  Latin  oration 
against  the  Sabbath,  121,  133  ;  his  Morality 
of  tJie  Fourth  Commandment,  and  its  ability, 
138  ;  letter  of  Archbishop  Ussher  to,  in  de 
fence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Irish  articles, 
140,  415,  428,  584,  588. 

Tyndale,  William,  translator  of  the  Bible,  his 
erroneous  sentiments  on  the  Sabbath,  35, 
36,  464 ;  manner  in  which  he  spent  the 
Sabbath  at  Antwerp,  36,  56 ;  is  assassi 
nated,  36 ;  his  dying  prayer  for  Henry  viu , 
ib. 

U 

UDEMANN,  Godfrey,  minister  at  Zierikzee,  his 
works  on  Ethics,  in  which  he  treats  of  the 
moral  and  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Sab 
bath,  92,  93  ;  urges  Walseus  to  publish  his 
treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  99,  100  ;  his  de 
scription  of  James  Burs's  work  against  the 
Sabbath,  100 ;  congratulates  Walseus  on 
the  publication  of  his  treatise  on  the  Sab 
bath,  101,  102. 

Uitenbogart,  John,  101. 

Ulster.     See  Ireland. 

Uniformity,  Act  of,  passed  in  1662. 

Unitarianism,  its  approximation  to  infidelity, 
264 ;  its  want  of  diffusive  and  moral 
power,  265. 

United  Provinces,  145.     See  Netherlands. 

United  Secession  Church,  Warning  of,  against 
Sabbath  profanation,  440,  441. 

United  States  of  America.  See  America, 
United  States  of. 

Ursinus,  Zacharias,  60  ;  his  Catechism,  412. 

Ussher,  James,  Archbishop,  25  ;  effect  of 
some  notes  of  Perkins'  sermons  on  him 
when  a  boy,  65,  66  ;  his  encomium  on  Mr. 
John  Dod,  70,  138 ;  wrote  in  defence  of  the 
Sabbath,  140,  330,  473. 

Utrecht,  97  ;  flourishing  state  of  University 
and  Church  of,  about  the  middle  of  tho 
seventeenth  century,  108 ;  Sabbath  more 
strictly  observed  at,  than  in  other  parts  of 
the  Netherlands,  108-112. 


VAUD,  Canton  tie,  superior  in  industry  and 
prosperity  to  the  neighbouring  Roraaa 
Catholic  cantons.  246,  247. 


632 


GENEEAL  INDEX. 


Venn,  Henry,  author  of  the  Complete  Duty  of 
Man,  225,  552. 

Venn,  Rev.  John,  182. 

Victoria,  Queen,  167,  589,  604,  607. 

Victorine,  his  testimony  against  the  obser 
vance  of  Saturday,  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  by 
Christians,  11,  376. 

Vigilautius,  a  Presbyter  of  Barcelona,  de 
nounces  the  abuses  connected  with  vigils 
and  festivals,  16. 

Villerne,  M.,  174. 

Virct,  Peter,  effects  the  removal  of  holidays 
from  Geneva,  ]  7,  409,  414. 

Vitringa,  Campegius,  his  Aphorisms,  anno 
tated,  referred  to,  1. 

Voetius,  Gisbertus,  Professor  at  Utrecht,  his 
answer  to  Burs's  work  against  the  Sabbath, 
96  ;  ""notice  of,  97  ;  pasquinade  directed 
against,  97,  114-116. 

Voltaire,  Francois-Marie  Arouet  De,  219. 

Vulcanius,  Bonaventura,  Professor  of  Greek 
Literature  at  Leyden,  95. 

W 

WAITE,  J.,  wrote  in  support  of  the  Sabbath, 
146. 

Wakes,  kept  on  the  Lord's  dav,  Origin  of, 
126,  128. 

Walaeus,  Antonius,  Professor  of  Theology  in 
the  University  of  Leyden,  93-96;  letter  of 
Teellinck  to,  urging  him  to  publish  his 
treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  9S  ;  letter  to  the 
same  effect  from  Udemarmtc,  99,  100  ;  notice 
of,  100,  101  ;  publishes  his  Treatise  on  the 
Sabbath,  101  ;  is  congratulated  by  Ude- 
mann  on  its  publication,  101,  102  ;  posi 
tions  maintained  in  it,  102 ;  its  defects, 
ib. ;  his  answer  to  Gomar's  Investigation  of 
the  Sabbath,  103,  104, 106, 107. 

Walcheren,  91,  92, 100.    See  Zealand. 

Waldenses,  The,  opposed  to  holidays,  16,  204, 
386  ;  their  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath, 
403,  404. 

Walker,  Mr.  George,  Rector  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  London,  received  canonical  ad 
monition  from  Laud  for  recommending  from 
the  pulpit  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath, 
135  ;  his  work  in  defence  of  the  Sabbath, 
138  ;  held  that  the  primitive  Sabbath  was 
posterior  to  the  fall  of  Adam,  144. 

Walker,  Samuel,  Curate  of  Truro,  147. 

Wallis,  Dr.  John,  his  two  tracts  in  defence  of 
the  Sabbath,  145,  531,  532 ;  his  defective 
doctrine  on  the  Sabbath,  146,  428,  472. 

Walpole,  Robert,  Earl  of  Orford,  Moral  and 
religious  condition  of  English  society  in  the 
time  of,  504. 

Wardlaw,  Dr.  Ralph,  his  Discourses  on  the 
Sabbath,  166, 169,  473,  584. 

Warren,  Edmund,  minister  of  St.  Peter's  in 
Colchester,  his  Jewish  Sabbath  Antiquated, 
character  of  that  work,  144. 

Warren,  Dr.  John  C.,  of  Boston,  ISO. 

Warren,  Samuel,  D.C.L.,  579. 

Washington,  George,  473. 

Watts,  Dr.  Isaac,  Sabbatic  institution,  de 
fended  in  his  writings,  146, 147. 

Wayland,  Dr.  Francis,  of  America,  154 


Wealth,  The  welfare  of  a  country  promoted 
by,  242  ;  the  Sabbath  contributes  to,  243. 

Weber,  Carl  Maria  von,  176. 

Weeks,  or  the  division  cf  tirne  into  periods 
of  seven  days ;  this  among  the  Patriarchs, 
implied  the  existence  of  the  Sabbath,  280, 
281 ;  and,  among  the  nations  of  antiquity, 
traceable  to  the  institution  of  the  Sab 
bath,  364,  365. 

Wesmse,  John,  of  Lathooker,  his  Exposition  of 
the  Laws  of  Moses,  the  fust  Scottish  work 
that  treats  with  considerable  fulness  of 
the  Sabbath,  162, 169. 

Webster,  Dr.  W.,  Vicar  of  Ware,  his  sentiment* 
on  the  Sabbath,  147. 

Welch,  John,  minister  of  Ayr,  his  reply  to 
Gilbert  Brown,  115 ;  his  zeal  for  the  Sab 
bath,  160,  161,  442. 

Wells,  John,  his  publication  on  the  Sabbath, 
145,  417. 

Wemyss,  Thomas,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  166. 

Wesley,  John,  428  ;  sanctification  of  the  Sab 
bath  by  the  converts  of,  452. 

Wesleyan  Methodists,  direction  in  their  regu 
lations  concerning  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day,  441. 

Westminster  Assembly  called  together  by  the 
Long  Parliament,  138,  139, ;  doctrine  of,  as 
to  the  Sabbath,  425-428,  439. 

Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  adopted  by 
the  Churches  in  New  England,  151,  152  ; 
adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  in  1647,  159,  162,  428, 
429. 

Whately,  Bichard,  Archbishop,  Obligation  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment  on  Christians 
denied  by,  142,  143,  489  ;  authors  who  have 
replied  to,  148.  577,  578,  584. 

Whitaker,  William,  Professor  of  Divinity,  at 
Cambridge,  95. 

White,  Francis,  Bishop  of  Ely,  an  opponent  of 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  Sabbath,  79,  118, 
125 ;  publication  of  his  Treatise  of  tlie  Sab- 
bath,  132  ;  anti-Sabbatic  character  of  that 
work,  133-136. 

White,  John,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  and 
usually  called  the  "patriarch"  of,  Dor 
chester,  his  valuable  Dissertation  on  the 
Sabbath,  139. 

Whiteh'eld,  George,  428  ;  sanctification  of  the 
Sabbath  by  the  converts  of,  452. 

Whitgift,  Robert,  Archbishop,  his  works  on 
the  question  of  the  ceremonies,  24 ;  his 
sentiments  on  the  Sabbath,  43,  52 ;  calls 
in  Bownd's  Sabbatum,  53 ;  pomp  affected 
by,  in  his  numerous  retinue,  54  ;  his  se 
vere  treatment  of  the  Puritan  ministers 
condemned  by  Lord  Burghley,  54  ;  stifles 
the  writings  of  the  Puritans,  61,  62  ;  his 
three  articles  to  which  subscription  was 
required,  61,  66 ;  took  measures  for  the 
suppression  of  Bcwnd's  Treatise  on  the  Sab 
bath,  74,  75,  79,  80.  See  Hampton  Court 
Conference. 

Whitsun-ales,  85. 

Widley,  George,  minister  in  Portsmouth,  hii 
work  on  the  Sabbath,  71. 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


633 


Wilbcrforce,  William,  178,  181,  182,  210,,  219, 

225.  226,  474,  476,  551,  586,  588,  607. 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  181. 
Wilkins,  John,  Bishop  of  Chester,  73. 
Wilkinson,  Dr.  Heury,  his  Dissertation  on  the 

Sabbath,  140. 
Willard,   Samuel,    minister  of  Boston,  New 

England,  152. 
Willet,  Dr.  Andrew,  his  Commentary  on  Genesis, 

74;   held  Dr.   Bownd's  sentiments  on  the 

Sabbath,  77,  US. 

William  in.,  Prince  of  Orange,  249. 
William  iv.,  Act  in  his  reign  for  promoting  the 

due  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  437. 
Williams,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  afterwards 

Archbishop  of  York,  his  sympathy  with  the 

suffering  Puritans,  23. 
Williams,  John,  597. 
Will  i  son,  John,  of  Dundee,  his  treatise  on  the 

Sabbath,  165,  169. 
Wilson,  Dr.   Daniel,  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  his 

work  on  the  Sabbath,  148,  154,  166,  429. 
Wilson,  Thomas,  minister  of  Otham  in  Kent, 

sent  for  to  Lambeth,  and  examined  for  hav 
ing  declined  to  read  from  the  pulpit  the 

Second  Declaration  of  Sports,  129  ;  his  noble 

defence,  129,  130. 
Withers,  Dr.  George,  his  View  of  the  marginal 

notes  in  the  Popish  New  Testament,  printed 

at  Rheims,  63. 
Witsius,  Hermann,  his  veneration  for  Andrew 

Essen,  his  preceptor  and  father  in  the  Lord, 

no. 

Wittenberg,  Conference  at,  for  promoting  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath,  599. 

Wodrow,  Robert,  minister  of  Eastwood,  115. 

Wolsey,  Thomas,  Cardinal,  his  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  put  an  end  to  ministers  acting 
miracle  plays,  49  ;  reference  to  the  pomp  af 
fected  by,  54. 

Woman,  owes  to  the  Bible  the  practical  recog 
nition  of  her  just  claims,  228  ;  evil  conse 
quences  wherever  she  has  been  degraded, 
229,  230. 

Woods,  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard,  of  America,  154. 

Woodstock,  Royal  Palace  of,  89. 

Woodward,  Hezekiah,  his  work  in  defence  of 
the  Sabbath,  139. 

Woolwich  lectures,  The,  148. 

Word  of  God,  Rules  to  be  observed  for  its 
right  interpretation,  515,  520,  539,  543,  544  ; 
all  vicars  required  to  read  it  in  the  vernacu 
lar  tongue  to  the  people  down  to  1360,  392 
(see  Bible) ;  preaching  of,  next  to  prayer,  the 
most  important  remedy  for  Sabbath  dese 
cration,  580. 

Wordsworth,  William,  592. 

Working  classes,  Average  duration  of  the  lives 
of  the,  shorter  than  that  of  those  of  the  higher 
and  middle,  in  Britain  and  France,  174  ;  a 
principal  cause  of  this,  protracted  labour, 
174-176 ;  the  Sabbath  a  clear  gain  to,  209, 
269  ;  public  -worship  habitually  neglected  by 
•vast  numbers  of,  561-563  ;  essays  on  the  Sab 
bath  by,  584,  603 ;  the  Sabbath  the  charter 


of,  605,  606..  See  Essays,  Prize,  on  the  Sab 
bath. 

Works,  Good,  Failure  of  the  mere  preaching 
of,  to  produce  good  morals,  197,  265,  266. 

Worship,  Public,  could  not  exist  without  the 
Sabbath,  202 ;  prevalence  of,  among  the 
patriarchs,  implied  the  obligation  and  ob 
servance  of  the  Sabbath,  281,  282  ;  forms  a 
part  of  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath,  324; 
waiting  upon  enforced,  325,  326  ;  reason 
assigned  by  the  Fathers  for  standing  dur- 
the  time  of  prayer  in,  389,  397.  398. 

Worthington,  Thomas,  writer  of  the  notes  in 
the  Rhemes  New  Testament,  62. 

Wotton,  Rev.  William,  his  views  of  the  Sab 
bath,  146. 

Wright,  H.  C. ,  of  America,  writes  against  the 
Sabbath,  167. 

Wright,  Dr.  Samuel,  his  work  on  the  Sab 
bath,  146. 

Wiirtemburg,  Confession  of,  Feast  of  Lent  re 
jected  by,  413. 

Wycliffe,  John,  opposed  to  holidays,  16  ;  held 
the  moral  obligation  of  the  Fourth  Com 
mandment,  38,  386  ;  observations  of,  on  the 
sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  390. 

Wyncup,  N. ,  held  the  perpetual  obligation  of 
the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  142. 


YOUNG,  James,  his  publication  on  the  Sab 
bath,  169. 

Young,  Dr.  Thomas,  vicar  of  Stowmarket, 
in  Suffolk,  his  Dies  Dominica,  special 
merits  of  that  work,  163  ;  notice  of,  ib.; 
elegy  on,  and  letters  to,  by  John  Milton, 
164,  169,  384. 

Younger,  John,  shoemaker,  St.  Boswell's 
Green,  167. 

York,  New,  Sabbath  reform  effected  in,  602, 
603. 


ZANCHIUS,  Jerome,  his  sentiments  on  the  Sab 
bath,  409. 

Zealand,  Successful  endeavours  of  William 
Teellinck  for  Sabbath  observance  in,  91, 
161  ;  Sabbatic  controversy  in  the  Nether 
lands  took  its  rise  in  1618  among  the  mini 
sters  of,  92,  93  ;  is  again  agitated  on  the 
question  of  the  Sabbath,  96,  101.  See 
Netherlands. 

Zealand,  New,  Success  of  missionaries  in 
planting  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
among  the  natives  of,  595,  597. 

Zealanders,  The  New,  263. 

Zuinglius,  Ulric,  the  Reformer  of  Switzerland, 
33  ;  principles  of  true  liberty  not  altogether 
x;nknown  to,  54;  his  sentiments  on  the 
Sabbath,  409,  414  ;  held  the  Lord's  day  as 
coming  under  the  authoritative  direction 
of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  419,  420, 
464. 

Zurich,  Reformed  Church  of,  discarded  twelve 
feast  days  of  Rome,  19,  414.. 


INDEX  OF  TEXTS. 


GENESIS. 
Cfe»p.         Ver.                     Page 

Chap.           Ver. 
xvi.        10,   .    .    .    . 
xviii.  18,  21,   .    .    .    . 

Page 
312 
535 

Chap.           Ver.                       ?*& 
cxxiv.          .     .     .     353,  354 
cxxxiv.           .     .                 447 

i.           5  519 

ii.       1-3,..  275,  517,527, 
529,  540 
„     2,    3,    ....  114 
3,    ...  10,  77 
iii.  17,  19,   ....  318 
iv.          3     ....  282 

I.  SAMUEL. 

ii.        25  
xxv.          9,    .    .    .     . 

337 
276 

PROVERBS, 
iii.    5,    6  544 
iv.        1-4,    .     .     .     .328 
xv.         24,    ....  609 
xxix.        17,    ....  585 

tfj  ......  ,,  279 

viii.          „    ....  280 
ix.          6,    ....  541 
„    25,  27,    ....  543 
sviii.         19,    .     .     534,  585 
xxix.  27,  28,   ....  280 

II.  SAMUEL. 
vi.        20  

I.  KINGS. 
xiL         33,   .     .     .     . 

197 
30 

xxx.          6  30 

ECCLESIASTES. 

iii.         7,    .     .     .     .525 
ix.        16,    ....  212 

EXODUS. 

vi.  1,  4,  5,    .     .     .     .  284 
xvL      „         .     .     527,  528 

II.  KINGS. 

iv.        23  
xxL       1-9,    .    .    .     . 

524 

521 

x.        15  260 

ISAIAH, 
i.        13,    ....  461 

xx.           2  542 

ii.      2,  3,    .     .     .     .  548 

„     4,    5,    ....     30 
5,    ....  542 

x.          5  

533 

xxxv.        10,    ....  353 

„            8,..  222,  285,  322, 
528 

xxxiii.  12-19  

521 

Ii.  15,  16,   ..    .     .  349 
liv.          2  480 
IvL       1-7,    ....  346 

„       9-11,    .     .     285,  319 
11,    .     .     277,  528 
„          12,    .     .     471,  542 
xxiii.          „     ....  527 

NEHEMIAH. 

ix.  13,  14,   ..     . 

xiii.        18,   .    .    .    . 

533 
341 

„             2  549 

6,    .     .     .     .549 
2-7  441 
7,    ....  548 

xxxi.  14,  15,   ....  342 
15,   ....  535 
17,    ....  276 
xl.          „    ....     30 

ESTHER. 

iv.        16  
v.         1,   .    .    .    . 

633 
533 

Iviii.        13,..  461,  536,  549, 
558 
„     13,  14,..  266,  337,  347, 
441,  552 

1.        10,   ....  280 

LEVITICUS. 

xix.        30,   ....  202 
xxiii.          3,   .     .     .     .536 

JOB. 

i.          6,   .    .     281, 
ii.          1,    .    .     281, 
„          13  

282 
282 
280 

„           14,    .     .     549,  550 
Ixv.         20,    ....  282 
„      20-22,    ....  257 
„     21,  23,    ....  298 
'  Ixvi.  22,  23,    ....  546 
„           23,..  257,  298,  300, 

NUMBERS. 

xv.  32-36,    .     .          .343 
xxviu.    9,  10  536 
„             15,    ....  446 

iv.          3,   .     .     .     . 
xxx,        28,   .     .     .     . 

XXXV.             1,     .      .      .      . 

PSALMS. 

282 
282 
276 

554 

JEREMIAH 

vii.  22,  23,   ....  288 
xvii.  24,  25,    ....  552 

DEUTERONOMY. 

1-7.           2  30 
v.  22,  31,   ....  287 
vi.      4,  9,    .     .     534,  535 
xil.        32,    ....     30 
xvi          2  523 

xix.        11,   .... 
xxii.  27,  28,   .... 
xxv.        14,   .... 
xxvii.         4,    .... 
xxxiii.        12,   .... 
xcii.         „  .  .  884,  388, 
cxix.       18,   .... 

447 
553 
543 
351 
553 
408 
544 

„      24-26,    ....  347 

LAMENTATIONS. 

i.          7,   .     .  8,n.,525 
ii.         6,   .    .     525,626 
V          it         .     .     3.*. 

INDEX  OF  TEXTS. 


635 


EZEKIEL. 

Chap.          Ver.                       Page 
Xiv.            4,    .      .     .      .113 
xx.  10,  12,   ....  533 
„     13-24,   ....  343 
xxiii.  38,  39,    .     .     557,  558 
xxvi.          4,    .     .     .     .536 
xliii.        27,  .  .  302,  547,  554 
xlvL      4,  5,   .     .     .     .  327 

DANIEL. 

fl,vi.               ....      5 

ii.        21,   ....  482 
vii.        25,   ....  488 
xi.        32,    ....  253 

Chap.       Ver.                       Page 
x.          16,    .     .              315 
xi.  34,  35,    .     .             544 
xiii.         16,   .     .            342 
xvi.         31,    .     .             541 
xx.         26,    .     .             532 
xxi.  18,20,21,    .             371 
20,   .     .             371 
xxiii.        56,   .     .             531 
xxiv.           7,    .    .             533 
„     36,38,39,    .             308 

JOHN. 

v.  10,  etc.,     .     .     .423 
vii.        17,   ....  543 

GALATIANS. 

Chap.        Ver.                       Page 
iii.         10,    ....  294 
iv.      9-11,   .     .     304,  315 

EPHESIANS. 

iv.        10,   ....  384 
28,    .     .     219,  220 
vi.       1-3,  .  .  296,  542,  543 
4,    ....  585 

PHILIPPIANS. 
iv.          3,   .     .     303,  304 

HOSEA 

,,    22,  etc.,     .     .    .422 
„           22,   ....  534 
ix.        16                      608 

COLOSSIANS. 
ii.  16,  17,   .  10,  303,  304, 

vi          6,  ....  288 

AMOS. 

Till      4,  5,   .              .  557 
„            5,   .     .     441,  526 

xx.   19-26,   .     .     309,  310 

ACTS. 

i.          2,   .              .     63 
v.  38,  39,   .     .     267,  273 
ix.        20,   .     .    .     .  306 

538,  539 
iii.         16,   ....  328 
iv.         16  325 

I.  THESSALONIANS. 

iv.      1,  2,   .          .     .  315 

V         27                      325 

MICAH. 
L          5,   ....  233 

MALACHI. 

L        11,   ..     553,  554 
12,   ....  557 
,  13   14     .               .  441 

x.        27,   ....  311 
xiii.    14-16  306 
27,   ....  325 
42,..    303,  532,  n. 
xv.         10,   ....  288 
19  10 
20,   ....  325 
„    24,28,29,   .     .     .315 

II.  TIMOTHY. 

i.          5  329 
iii.        15  329 

HEBREWS, 
iv  3  4  9  10                 529 

iv.          4,    ....     30 

xvii.       1-3,   .     .     .     .306 

„           9,    .     .     349,  477 

MATTHEW. 

xx.    6,  12,   .     .     310,  311 
7,..  310,  392,  531 
xxi      4,  5,    .    .     .     .  310 

„     9,  10,    .          308,  529 
viii.        11,   ....  541 
„          13  7 

v.    17-19  295 
18,  ....  546 
vii.         16,  ....  543 
xi.    28-30,  ....  610 
xii.  1,  etc.,  ....  423 
5,  ....  560 
,,             8,  .     .     482,  488 
xix.    16-19,  ....  296 
xxii.    37-40,  .     .     .     .296 

25,   ....     10 
xxiv.         25,   ....  202 

ROMANS. 

ii.  14,  15,   ....  293 
iii.      1,  2,   .     .     288,  293 
31                       206 

X.         25,    ....  311 
,,  25,  26,    .     .     325,  326 
„    25-31,    ....  344 

JAMES. 

i.        5-7,    .     .     544,  545 
ii.         10,   ....  294 
„  10,  1],   ....  297 

xxiiL          23,  ....  288 
xxiv.         15,  ....  371 
„             20,..  303,  371,  372, 
532,  n. 
xxvii.         63,  .     .     .     .  533 
Txviii.          1,  .     .    .     .531 

v.         13,   ....  534 
vii.           6,   .     .     .     .294 
„          12,   .     .     288,  296 
14,    ....  288 
22,   ..     288,  295 
xiii.          9,   .     .     .     .296 

II.  PETER, 
iii.        10,   ....  193 

I.  JOHN. 

MAEK. 

ii.        27,   .     .     529,  5BO 
iv.        34  329 

xiv.           ,,    .     .     .     .138 
5,  6,   ....  305 

iv.          6  315 

REVELATION, 
i                 .                   41 

vii.  10,  11,   .     ...  295 
viii.         31,    ....  533 

ix.        10                      529 

10,  .    63,  64,  313, 
327  431 

ziii.         14,   ....  371 
xvi.         19,    .     .     308,  531 

LUKE. 

x.         14.              .     .  420 
xi.  17,  IS,    .     .          .  311 
xiv.  23,  26  311 
,,           37,    ....  315 
xv.           4,   .     .     .     .533 

iv.  8,10,11,     .     .     .350 
V.     8-10,    .     .     350,  351 
„     9-14,    .     .          .354 
viL        10,    ..          .  352 
,,    14,  15,    ..          .  353 

IL        21,   .     .     532,  533 
tv.   18-41,   .    .     .     .321 

xvi.          „    ....     41 
„        1,  2,   .     .     812,  351 

xiii.          8,   .    .         .  492 
xxi.        28,  .    .         .358 

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